Students should be given grants, not loans – ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Bauchi zone, has reiterated its desire to reject student loans in favour of grants to fund their education.

The Bauchi zonal coordinator of ASUU, Associate Professor Lazarus Maigoro, said this on Sunday during the award of scholarships to 19 indigent university undergraduates in the zone at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi.

Professor Maigoro said, “The question is: Who will pay the loan? What is the fate of those who cannot access it? The psychological trauma the students will be subjected to due to the loan while still in their studies will affect their performances negatively.

“The thought that they would graduate with a loan of N4million and above without the capacity to pay back is another psychological torture on them.”

He said the Bauchi zone of ASUU was working on getting the statistics of students who may likely drop out of school at the end of the current session, with the hope of making the government review its decision on the issue of the loans and replace it with grants.

Earlier in his welcome remarks, the ATBU branch chairperson, Comrade Ibrahim Inuwa, assured that ASUU would continue to act as a socially responsible union by fighting for the collective interest of quality tertiary education.

He stressed that the scholarship award, which is a yearly event would always seek out brilliant but indigent students for recognition and award.

Some of the benefitting students commended ASUU for the kind gesture, saying that without the award they would have dropped out of school.