Students of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic woke up on Thursday to meet a new school fees on their portal, raising concerns and suspicions as to what must have led to the abrupt change.
Ajose Oluwatoyin Isaiah, an ND1 student of Mass communication expressed how shocked he was towards the increase.
He said, “I was shocked when I heard about it and I must say, I wasn’t happy at all.”
Expressing similar reaction was Memunat Olajide, an ND1 student of SLT who said, “I was surprised and bittered when I heard the news circulating the school.”
Ridwan Olawale, an ND1 student of Computer Science said, “This is so annoying and I’m not happy about it considering the situation of the economy, things are tight for people, how do we get to pay now?
It will be recalled, however, that the students through their students leaders recently embarked on a three day protest against the increment of miscellaneous fees.
The protest was said to be successful as the school reverted the miscellaneous fees to normal and promised to bring back 60-40 payment mode.
It was, however, confusing when on Wednesday night, a circular went online that the students leaders had acceded to the increase in school fees during a meeting with the management with many students claiming that such information was not communicated to them.
Gbadamosi Lateef, an ND2 student of Mass Communication venting his anger said, “We were supposed to be notified and told the reasons for the increase. Students who cater for their tuition fee themselves, how do you want them to cope?Even with the addition of 7000, many students will still drop out”.
Sharing same thought was Adeniran Sadiq, an HND2 student of Mass Communication who opined that a heads-up about this would have been better than the sudden change.
His words, “When I saw the information, my first reaction was doubt. I never believed initially but later on, I discovered it was true. I was very angry when I saw it. The fact that the student leader has spoken with them on our behalf still doesn’t justify the increase in the school fees. It would have been better if the increase had been done earlier and we should have been informed so as to know what to tell our guardians and parents, and also know how to plan ourselves.”
Reacting also was Aminat Gusanu ,HND2 student of Mass communication; she said, “I felt so sad upon the news because I’m yet to even pay my school fee as I’m still struggling to get it. Now that it has been increased, it will be more difficult paying. ”
However, Press Club MAPOLY made efforts to confirm the veracity of the circular, and the school’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Yemi Ajibola confirmed it.
Mr Ajibola claimed that the increment was long over due as other schools in the state like Tai Solarin and Olabisi Onabanjo university have increased theirs, stating that MAPOLY won’t be an exception.
He stated that the last time the school fees was increased in the polytechnic was 2011, and that the prevailing economy of the country is not helping matters in terms of running the school.
He said, “Management conceded to the negotiations of students leaders for N7000 to be added across board. The management wanted to take it above but the students’ leaders pleaded and marshalled arguments.
He further explained how the school has been taking loans to service the school because the system must continue to run.
“We took a loan of N300 million from Unity bank last year to pay 3 months salary. We also took N200 million from other persons and N444 million from Fidelity bank. For how long are we going to keep on taking loans? This has been a tough time for the institution and the government has been supportive. If not for the state government, we won’t be were we are today,” Ajibola said.
Getting across to the students leaders on their reaction to this, a top source among the student leaders said that the students populace was not informed because it is the duty of the school management to announce publicly the increment.
The source said what can be done in their jurisdiction is to speak to other students leaders about the development.
The source said MAPOLY needs to keep running and for it to keep running, there is a need to increase the revenue.
They stated that though it shouldn’t be the concern of the students on why the school needs money but if they never agreed on shifting grounds, the system might be affected.
