The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Calabar chapter, has expressed concerns over the number of students dropping out of school in the country.

The chapter’s chairman, Peter Ubi, spoke in an interview on Tuesday in Calabar about the achievements of President Bola Tinubu’s first year in office.

He said that a large number of students have dropped out of school in the past year due to the country’s harsh economic conditions.

“More students are dropping out of school following the cost of acquiring education,” said Mr Ubi. “The dropout challenge is affecting all levels of education; many parents are falling below the poverty line.”

Mr Ubi said basic education ought to be free in the country and expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that low-income families faced difficulties sending their children to school.

The chairman said education institutions in the country had lost a huge number of efficient and qualified manpower to migration.

“Young scholars are leaving in search of greener pastures. This challenge is worse in tertiary institutions.

“They will claim to be going for further studies abroad, but we know they are not returning; it is a painful reality,” he said.

Mr Ubi urged the federal government to remove ASUU from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) to save the university system.

“They made us this promise, but nothing has been done about it till today,” he said.

He said lecturers were owed both salaries and promotion arrears, and that the development had dampened their morale.

“We only work to earn a living, not because there is dignity in labour. The nation’s education sector has achieved nothing significant in the past year.

“This is because the budgetary allocation to the sector is still far from the standard recommendation.

“The only thing you see today in most institutions is TETFund-sponsored projects, which were there before the current administration.

”The rate of school dropout and migration won’t be this high if the system was lively and attractive,” he said.

(NAN)