The steady rise in fuel prices across Nigeria is taking a profound toll on household finances, with one of the hardest-hit sectors being children’s education. As private schools resume for a new term following the Easter and Sallah holidays, many parents are confronting a harsh reality: the cost of transporting their children to school is now competing directly with tuition fees. For some families, transportation is no longer a secondary expense but a dominant one, forcing difficult decisions that are already reshaping schooling choices across the country.

This shift is altering enrolment patterns nationwide. Increasingly, parents are delaying payment of school fees, downsizing their educational preferences, or withdrawing their children from private schools altogether in favour of more affordable options closer to home. Birth attendants: Inside women’s struggle between affordability and survival APC gov’ship tickets: Imposition or consensus?

Parents, school owners grapple with rising transport costs In Abuja, school operators say the situation is becoming increasingly difficult to manage as both parents and proprietors struggle to absorb rising costs. Dr Mary Chinwuba, an educationist and Executive Director of Chalcedony Prime School, Abuja, described the development as deeply troubling. “The impact of the fuel hike is not really palatable, because in turn we, the school owners, are left with no choice but to increase the fare of our school buses, which also affects the parents who are at the receiving end,” she said.

“Parents will start looking for schools around them that will not require school buses just to cut costs, even when it is not what they actually want.” In the same vein, Mrs Rosemary Onyenagubo, proprietress of The Winners Joy International Academy, Kubwa, Abuja, lamented the rising cost of school operations. “I don’t know how to go about it. The economy is not friendly at all.

We are losing as private school operators,” she said. “We currently don’t charge for anything except fuel. I have to buy new tyres for our Sienna bus and replace some parts, but the cost will be on us, not the parents.” She warned that passing the full cost to parents could be unsustainable.

“If we add all these costs, parents will pay nothing less than N300,000 per term for transportation. I am even planning to stop the service, but if I do, it will affect some students, and we don’t want to lose them.” She added that the pressure is not limited to transportation. “This fuel hike is equally affecting our staff, who are asking for salary increases.

How do we keep up? It is not good at the moment,” she said. A parent, Mrs Ademiretiolewa Adebayo, who has two children in a private school in the Lugbe area of Abuja, said that although the school did not directly increase tuition fees, additional charges introduced after a PTA meeting are already putting pressure on parents.

She said the proprietress, during the meeting, raised concerns about rising operational costs, additional taxes from the government and the impact of the new education policy, and subsequently informed parents to expect a new charge known as a “curriculum implementation levy.” “In the newsletter sent home with the children, the curriculum implementation levy was pegged at N12,000 per student. She explained during the PTA meeting that the levy was necessary to procure materials needed for the new curriculum,” she said. Mrs Adebayo, however, noted that the levy is only one of several emerging concerns for parents.

“But that is not even the only issue. For the first time, the school was silent on transport fares. We have been paying N90,000 for students within the FHA area of Lugbe and N120,000 for those outside the FHA for the past three terms,” she said.

“The proprietress complained during the PTA meeting that the current rates are not sustainable given the cost of petrol, but did not give any further details. This has left many of us worried that a new price may be introduced after parents have paid school fees, making it difficult to withdraw our children.” She added that the effects of rising costs are also being felt in less obvious ways, including classroom conditions. “My children came back with heat rashes last term because of the extreme heat.

When I raised the issue at the PTA meeting, I realised the school had been rationing generator use due to high fuel costs,” she said. “In fact, the PTA is now considering installing solar-powered fans in classrooms to ease the situation.” Mrs Adebayo further disclosed that the school has also adjusted charges for end-of-session activities. “For the graduation or transition party, Pre-Nursery and Nursery 2 pupils are to pay N20,000, Nursery 1 and Grade 1 to 4 pupils N12,000 each, while Grade 5 pupils will pay N30,000.

This is a significant increase from what was paid last year,” she said. She noted that the proposed increase in school fees was only deferred following intervention by the PTA. “The proprietres