In an era where the costs of quality education appear to be rising exponentially, the Federal Government is to be commended for introducing an insurance scheme to cover students, buildings and other infrastructure in its 104 Unity Schools.
Formally known as the Student Welfare Insurance Scheme, the policy aims at ensuring that students are able to continue with their education regardless of injury, or death of a parent or sponsor.
In return for the payment of a N5,000 premium per session, students are guaranteed N50,000 for treatment in case of injury, and up to N2.5 million in school fees in case of the death of a sponsor. Sponsors will receive a one-time payment of N500,000 if a student dies. N50,000 will be paid towards the burial expenses of deceased students or sponsors. The Federal Government will insure buildings for N900 million per school and N200 million for their contents. In addition, N70 million will be paid to insurers as cover for 326 school vehicles.
There can be little doubt that this is a welcome initiative. By providing formal financial guarantees of this sort, students, parents and the staff of the country’s Federal Government Colleges will be assured that their aspirations and functions will not be permanently disrupted by life’s vicissitudes.
However, there are several issues that must be resolved if the scheme is to be successful. The first has to do with the compulsory nature of the premium payments. This is unnecessary; all that would be required is to ensure that sponsors have education insurance for their wards. They should be free to consider the competing benefits of the various schemes on offer and choose that which they deem to be the best.
It is also inappropriate for the Federal Ministry of Education to present the scheme as a fait accompli which apparently cannot be questioned. Indeed, it does not seem that there was any attempt to secure the buy-in of parents and sponsors for the Student Welfare Insurance Scheme. This is a significant oversight, since it would have afforded an opportunity to provide necessary clarifications on the aims and objectives of the scheme.
This becomes even more important in light of the fact that there have been problems in the past. In May 2016, the National Association of Parents and Teachers of Federal Government Colleges (NAPTAFEGC) re-stated their opposition to the imposition of N5,000 as insurance fees in Unity Schools in 2014. The association’s main complaint was that it had not been consulted on the matter. It is not clear if this particular problem has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.
There are also questions related to the insurance companies that are to be involved in the Student Welfare Insurance Scheme. How were they identified? What criteria determined their final selection? What dispute-resolution procedures are in place? Are there any preventive strategies to ease bureaucratic bottlenecks and ward off corruption? These are issues that must be dealt with transparently in order to ensure that the wrong impressions are not created from the onset.
While it is a welcome intervention, the Unity School insurance scheme does not directly address many of the most fundamental challenges the schools face. All of them are confronting the problem of overcrowding, decrepit classrooms, laboratories, libraries and toilets, as well as shortages of educational equipment and consumables like computers, reagents, tools and instruments. Those situated in the country’s volatile north-east have serious security challenges. Several scandals have damaged the reputation of some Federal Government Colleges.
As the Federal Government prepares to implement its insurance scheme for Unity Schools, it must promulgate policies which would ensure that similar schemes are developed for other secondary schools in Nigeria as well.Restricting such a beneficial programme to a few selected schools would be inequitable.
Creating a national secondary school insurance programme would require close cooperation with state governments and owners of private schools. It is yet another reason why the Student Welfare Insurance Scheme is in need of more rigorous thought and work to get it right.
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