The recent increase in the school fees of students have generated lots of argument and debates. It would be recalled that prior to the increase in school fees, the students embarked on a 3 days protest over an increase in miscellaneous transactions.
After much deliberation and negotiation, the protest was said to be successful as the school finally reverted the miscellaneous transactions to status quo. It was, however, surprising to soon see an increment in school fees without proper notification from the managements nor the students’ leaders to the students on the increase. This, has gathered over the week, didn’t sit down well with the students.
While the school management believed the increment was long overdue following the economic debacle of the country and the financial crisis rocking the school, it therefore reached an agreement with the students leaders to add N7000 to the school fees of students across all levels and departments.
While the management maintained that its awareness of the fiscal challenges being encountered by students in payment of school bills, it equally explained the reasons for its action and implored the students to reckon with the reality that the institution had to do what it did to keep functioning as the school has been taking loans to service the school because the system must continue to run which is also to the benefit of the students.
Students have since been expressing varied perspectives and opinions to the issue. While some are shocked towards the increment, some are angry towards the development.
While it is understandable the concerns of students over the increment, looking at the fix upon which the management premised the increment, one will agree that it is on the long run to the benefits of the students. If the coin is to be flipped, no one would actually pine for a situation where the school is brought to its knees because it is insolvent to take care of basic bills that keep an institution running.
No doubt, the point of the students not being the collateral damage to revenue generation is valid; upon this will the management be charged to start uncovering and inventing ingenious ways to generate revenue without having to make the students go through more difficulty as a result of resorting to fee increment to solve fiscal challenges. The economy isn’t friendly, and this disposition is across the board: the students, their parents, non-teaching staff, teaching staff. In this case, we must all look out for one another and not have one be the collateral damage for the gone-bad economy.
The students’ leaders were also in the news for its perceived betrayal to the students populace in the light that a meeting with the management was held and no due information was relayed to the public prior to the abrupt increment in students’ school fees emblazoned on their portal.
While the management has the responsibility of information sharing and cannot be spared for nondisclosure of the policy, the students leaders also are obliged to share information to the people they represent in the corridors of power in the school. Prior to the increment, information had been shared from COVID-19 vaccine, to Employment Training, to Transportation Meetings and what not. The students have been able to be brought up to speed with those events as a result of the leaders being responsible to information sharing. The question then is: why didn’t we get due information on this policy before its implementation knowing well that the decision was taken with the students’ leaders privy and in agreement to it?
