Fawaz Adebisi
Newly admitted students of the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, MAPOLY, have expressed their dissatisfaction with the “no going back” strategy the institution is reportedly trying to use on them, concerning the announcement of their school fees.
Press Club MAPOLY, PCM earlier reported that the institution’s management recently publicized the amount returning students would pay as school fees, while keeping mum on the amount of newly admitted students’ tuition fees.
The report stated that according to a source, who hinted the campus outlet, freshers will have to complete their registration and clearance before getting to know how much they’ll pay as school fees.
Gathering the requirements for the completion of registration and clearance, newly admitted students have to pay for acceptance fee, which is currently N35,500, provide an 0’level certificate, National Diploma statement of result, ND transcript, Industrial Training, I.T letter, application form, passports among others.
According to the source, without completing these processes, freshers won’t know how much they will pay as tuition fees.
Although, it was gathered that due to the change of MAPOLY students’ website, immediate past HND1 and ND1 students had to complete their registration before paying for school fees.
But, the clear difference is that they knew how much they would pay and were not kept in the dark as the amount to be paid reflected on their portal, unlike the current situation.
Recall that about three months ago, the institution’s Student Union Government, under the aegis of Hezekiah Babatunde, protested the sudden increase of acceptance fee from N35,500 to N50,500 among other hike in miscellaneous fees by the tuition management.
School fees for freshers were proposed to be set at N150,000 and N155,000 for ND, and Higher National Diploma respectively, according to a communique purportedly released and circulated by the union on October 12, 2023.
The protest resulted in the return of the acceptance fee to the status quo, however, the amount to be paid for school fees by freshers remained unknown.
Reacting to this, prospective students, who have gained admission knocked the management for being manipulative and not straightforward.
Akintunde Abdulwasiu said, “This is a no going back strategy. If they wanted to reduce it(the proposed amount of school fees for freshers), they would have announced it, but they don’t want to reduce it.
“What the school did is wrong, because how would they expect students not to know the exact amount of school fees they would pay?
“My parents have been disturbing me about how much the school fees but I couldn’t give them any answers. Knowing our school fees only when we finish our clearance is unfair.”
Abdulwasiu further stated that it wouldn’t be easy for a student to quickly gather another money for school fees if he/she has already exhausted all the money for total registration on clearance alone.
“For the clearance now, we would spend money, it’s not as if it’s free and we don’t even know how much we would spend.
“If we’ve spent money on clearance and all, and saw that the school fees are so high, what would such a student do,” he said.
The situation is the same for Summayah Omotosho as she lamented the “inconvenient strategy” the school is trying to use.
According to her, if this strategy is implemented, freshers will have no choice but to pay, even if the school fee is higher than expected.
In her words, they just want to inconvenience freshers with no choice but to proceed with the next payment or registration, even if the school fee is high.
Habibat Tijani, another prospective student defined this strategy as a way of putting students in suspense with no clear outcome.
According to her, the school wants students to finish registration before getting to know how much they’ll pay as tuition fees, leaving them with no other choice than to pay.
“Now I don’t know if it’ll be 100,000+ or not, and by that time, one wouldn’t be able to step back, because one, you’ll have spent a lot and gone through many stresses.
“You’ll have also made some payments, and by that time, you can’t withdraw again, you just have to continue and find the money.
“It’s just as if the school put us in suspense and wants us to do the registration first.
“It’s like a strategy to catch more people, you know, normally, if students have been given admission, they’ll see the school fees, if they can pay, they’ll proceed and if not, they’ll withdraw,” she stressed.
In the same vein, Baliqees Kushimo queried the reason for not publicizing the amount of school fees to be paid by freshers.
“What if they finished doing the clearance and they don’t have enough money to pay for the school fee, what would happen?” she asked rhetorically.
She therefore urged the school management to promptly publicize the amount freshers would pay as school fees to ease their (students’) affairs.