School fees have gone up 30 to 100 per cent in the last two years. Parents are borrowing to keep children enrolled, or pulling them out entirely.

The struggle to pay school fees has become one of the heaviest financial burdens facing Nigerian families, and it is no longer confined to any one income bracket. From nursery schools to universities, costs are rising faster than household earnings can absorb them. Some parents borrow. Others, without saying much about it, simply stop sending their children back the following term.

The government's own fee decisions have added to the pressure. In June, the Ministry of Education approved raising the WAEC and NECO senior school exam fee from ₦27,500 to ₦50,000, effective from the 2027 cycle. That is a jump of more than 80 per cent. Private schools have moved in the same direction. Fee increases of 30 to 50 per cent are now common, with mid-range schools that charged ₦350,000 a term two years ago now asking for more than ₦600,000.

The knock-on effects are not abstract. Safeguarding experts have warned that children withdrawn from school because of cost face higher risks of child labour, early marriage, and exploitation. Some families are moving children from private to public schools instead, where fees run closer to ₦5,000 to ₦25,000 a term. Even that shift carries its own strain on already stretched public classrooms.

Private school proprietors are not pricing families out for sport. Operating costs, fuel, generator diesel and transport have all risen sharply since subsidy removal. School owners say raising fees is the only way to keep paying staff and keep the lights on. That squeeze runs both directions. A teacher whose monthly pay no longer covers commuting costs is as trapped in this as the parent trying to find the fee.

None of this is happening because Nigeria lacks the fiscal room to intervene. This is the same government that signed off on a tax credit for Shell worth more than double the standard rate inside a matter of months. Education still received only 6.1 per cent of the 2026 federal budget, a drop from 7.3 per cent the year before. The families borrowing to keep a child enrolled this term are not asking for a bailout. They are asking why the same state that can move a $20 billion oil deal through in weeks cannot find room to hold examination fees steady.