As primary and secondary schools reopen today, many parents face higher bills. Checks by Vanguard found most private schools have raised fees by 30 to 40 per cent. In Lagos, some families with children in public schools who cannot produce a tax clearance now pay a N20,100 levy, up from N10,100.
One private secondary school in Ipaja moved tuition from N86,000 a term to N124,000. Another in Egbeda went from N250,000 to N320,000. Similar jumps were reported elsewhere. Fuel costs are squeezing school runs. Some owners who already issued July bills are considering fresh invoices.
Parent John Aderiye said spending about N10,000 on petrol to ferry one child made no sense; he has hired a neighbourhood tricyclist instead. A school in Alagbado has dropped its bus service and told parents to bring children themselves or use the hostel.
Otunba Yusuf Alaka, Lagos president of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), said a 40 per cent rise was still modest against true costs. Members, he said, are owed hundreds of millions, lose pupils to other schools mid-debt, pay rising levies and cannot hire teachers in parts of Lagos for less than N150,000 a month.
Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo of the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) asked owners to cap increases at 20 per cent, noting that most parents have had no matching rise in income. Lagos Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) chairman Hassan Akintoye urged families not to pull children out.
Unity colleges added confusion. After the concession of King’s College, Lagos, to its old boys, some parent groups talked of a boycott. A circular claiming a three-week delay was circulating. The Federal Ministry of Education, through Boriowo Folasade, called that document fake: it used the wrong permanent secretary’s name. Minister Maruf Tunji Alausa said Monday, 14 September 2026, remains resumption day.
The fee story is the same squeeze seen at the pump and in the compound: costs move first, wages do not. Proprietors and parents are both describing a bill they cannot fully absorb. Public levies doubling for those without tax papers widen the gap between formal employment and everyone else.
Whether children stay enrolled will depend less on advice to “not be discouraged” than on whether a 30 per cent school fee and a N10,000 school run still fit in the same household envelope.
