Back-to-school blues: parents face sharp rise in school fees
Parents brace for steep hikes as Nigerian schools reopen with fees up by as much as 100 percent.
It is the first day of a new school year in Nigeria, and while pupils are ironing uniforms and dusting off lunch boxes, parents are clutching calculators and bank alerts. The 2025/2026 academic session has barely begun, but school fees have gone through the roof.
From Lagos to Abuja, private schools are revising their fees upwards by anything from 25 to 100 per cent. Some mid-tier schools that once charged ₦350,000 a term now demand more than ₦600,000. In the elite category, fees climb as high as ₦3.5 million per term, not counting extras like feeding, transport, or exams. Even public schools, once seen as the affordable escape, have quietly doubled their levies in the past five years.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) puts Nigeria’s inflation at 24.5 per cent, and food inflation above 20 per cent. Parents are feeling this in every corner of life, from market stalls to petrol stations, but education has become one of the hardest blows.
The hard choices
Faced with rising costs, many families are rethinking what kind of education they can realistically afford. A recent LagosMums survey found that more than a third of parents had already moved their children from private schools to public ones, citing cost as the main reason. Public schools are far cheaper, with tuition typically between ₦5,000 and ₦25,000 per term. But even here, quality is uneven and infrastructure is stretched thin.
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Education analysts warn that school fees are now consuming between 25 and 40 per cent of household income for many middle-class families, far above what the World Bank considers affordable. Boarding fees and feeding costs pile on more weight, sometimes rivaling what it costs to feed the children at home.
Private school owners argue that they, too, are struggling under inflation. Electricity, diesel, teacher salaries, books, and even chalk have become more expensive. “Schools are not immune. We are adjusting fees to survive, but many of us are also offering flexible payment plans,” says the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools.
Some schools have introduced instalment options or early-bird discounts, but the relief is modest compared to the scale of increases. A number of school owners admit that without government support, many smaller institutions risk closing down.
What next?
Nigeria spends just about 7 per cent of its annual budget on education, far below the 15 to 20 per cent UNESCO recommends. Until this changes, parents and school operators may remain stuck in this tug-of-war.
Yet, even in the middle of the struggle, parents are finding creative ways to cope, from bulk-buying school supplies to pulling resources together in community savings groups. Schools too, are experimenting with flexible payment plans and bursaries to keep learning alive.
Nigerian families have never given up on education. For every tough conversation about fees, there is still a deep belief that learning opens doors. But belief alone cannot carry the weight of rising costs. Something has to give. Schools, government, and communities must find new ways through subsidies, support systems, and fairer structures to make education affordable again. As this new school year begins, that resilience from parents, children, and teachers shows that no child’s future should be locked away behind a price tag.
