The right to education, social justice and the Nigerian students loan act

Abstract

The right to education is recognised all over the world as human right. In fact, unfavourable conditions tied to the fact of not being educated serve as an impetus to people to want to indeed be educated. Nonetheless, the right to education in Nigeria might not be a right, but a pseudo-right. Access to education, most especially higher education, is impeded by the unavailability of funding. Social justice includes right to education for all. Then it is necessary for the government of countries to provide right conditions for funding. One of the funding mechanisms which replaces personal out-of-pocket payments is the student loan. The fact that resources are limited and the fact of equal access (with requirements) show that social justice cannot be attained in society. Due to this fact, it is necessary to have a system of allocation that is near-justice. One where assertions as to the existence of discriminations are limited or non-existent. All the past laws on students’ loan funding did not really reveal social justice and neither did they show near-justice. With the aid of doctrinal methodology, enactment of the Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act 2023 was examined and the paper finds that a lot of persons were denied access to funding. An amendment subsequently proceeded to rectify the problems inherent in the former Act, but it provided for what was done away with in the old Act and what should have been done away with in securing proximity to social justice in education. On that premise, the paper recommends that interests on loans be removed.