The General Overseer of Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria, Reverend Felix Meduoye, said people should not expect church-owned universities to offer free education because they are difficult and costly to run without government support.
Church-owned universities are forced to charge high tuition fees because it is a costly venture to build and effectively run schools without access to government subsidies.
This was stated by Reverend Felix Meduoye, the General Overseer of Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria, which owns and runs the Macpherson University, Ogun State, Sun News reports.
Speaking with journalists as part of activities marking the church’s Diamond Jubilee, Meduoye said the public must not expect free education in faith-based schools because running a schools is an expensive adventure but one foundation that I must lay here is that schools cost a lot of money, not only to build but also in running them," he said.
He continued, "You may say, let them make everything free since they are churches. But you know that the church also has primary responsibilities, not only to man but also to God, for the salvation of the human soul. And it is an expensive adventure and expensive project too."
The General Overseer added that the cost implications come about because the schools must offer quality education. "Supposing we decide to build a school and just build houses and say well, because we have built houses, let us do it in a way that it will not cost us anything; and just bring children there, you will see that at the end of the day, we will not give the children the best.”
He also added that the fact that government subsidies are not extended to such schools mean they do not have the extra funds available to government owned institutions. "Some people say that faith-based schools charge more than the Federal Government-owned schools. Again, I think that such people do not consider that faith-based schools are not entitled to the subsidies that federal universities receive.
He said, "contrary to opinions, the churches are not "out there to make profit" but only breaking even
but trying to break even in private school, when you don’t have government subsidy, is not a cheap thing."
Babcock University, owned and operated by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Nigeria, reportedly charges between N620,000 to N3 million while the Redeemer’s University, owned and operated by the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), is said to charge between N500,000 to N650,000 per annum.
It is however generally believed that the facilities available at such private and faith based universities are much better than what is available at government owned institution, which may be the reason why Covenant University, Ota, owned by the Winners Chapel was recently rated the best university in Nigeria.
They also have stable academic calendars, being immune to strike actions.
In a related development, the Covenant University authorities indicated a willingness to reduce its tuition fees.
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