The National Youth Service Corps is a compulsory one-year program set aside for graduates of different tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
While on this service course, the youth corps members are paid a monthly allowance from the federal government as well as an allowance from the state government. Each member of the corps receives the same amount of allowance from the federal government, but the allowance varies because state governments pay differently.
In this post, I'm going to talk about why I don't care about the stipends paid by the place of primary assignment.
My name is Agidi Alex Oluwasegun. Countless times I have been in conversations with corpers who thought it to be foolish to not negotiate properly with P.P.A concerning monthly stipends.
It is not uncommon to see P.P.A pay corpers stipends to compensate for their efforts. As clearly stated above many states government in Nigeria pay corpers monthly allowance which is different from that of the Federal government 33k monthly allowance.
My concern is fellow corpers make me look foolish whenever we engage in issues of stipends from P.P.A. Though the cost of living in Nigeria over the years has skyrocketed, however, for what it's worth there are some things that are of more value than money and the below statement will elaborate on why I think so;
"Regardless of the state of the Nigeria education system. I'm a proud product of the Nigerian public education system. I could vividly remember years ago while my counterpart in private secondary schools was paying fees in six figures I was only paying a P.T.A levy of less than N1,500 per term.
Many products of such public institutions might have overlooked this, of course, I have read and seen critics who fused about how the government has failed to deliver on their promises and how education has not been made free across the federation. They claim many Nigerian parents and guardians still have to get chairs and desks, school uniforms, and some other things for their wards. Of course, this can be very difficult for many parents who are living below $1 a day.
However, the fact that I was paying such an outrageous amount yet received top-notch classroom experience from trained professionals who were mostly N.C.E or B.ed holders makes me commend the effort of the government.
Furthermore, After secondary education, I got admission into the University of Benin. UNIBEN is a school I love so much, and without even having an idea of the tuition fee charged I chose it as a first choice preferred institution during my UTME registration. But, to my utmost surprise, my tuition fee for the first year was N46,500 and the subsequent academic session was N12,400.
What can you say to that dear reader, A higher institution student tuition fee for a whole academic year is that low, and this applies to most federal governments schools even though several factors which range from being an indigene etc. May make tuition different among students. This could only be possible because the federal government has to a large extent made provisions for federal higher institutions in its yearly capital and recurrent expenditure?
Let me not bore you with long illustrations. All I have been trying to let you know is that education is an expensive commodity in most parts of the world even in developed countries. The state of infrastructures of Nigeria public schools might be alarming but to a large extent, the Nigerian public school system has been able to subsidize the cost of education and still maintain the service of expendable professionals in the teaching and non-teaching workforce.
I will forever remember the erudite scholars who taught me in UNIBEN. Also, there's a rumor that most of the public universities lecturers are most of the time, the same lecturers in private higher institutions who either work on part-time or contractual terms.
Finally, I believe with this elaborated point of mine, it is right to say I'm a product of society. The resources (public funds) were used to train me. So to me, it is an honor to serve the country through the National Youth Service Corps(NYSC) program.
Engaging young students in my place of primary assignment, impact their lives with lifelong career guidance, knowledge, and values.
Society through the public education system has trained me. Now as a youth corper I give back to society by impacting the lives of the young ones positively. Thus, the payment of the stipends which most corp members expect P.P.A to pay isn't a big deal to me.
Thanks for reading.
