YOU MUST REDUCE LASU SCHOOL FEE, STUDENTS TELL FASHOLA

Governor: We can’t substitute fee reduction for standard

Students ask Jonathan to sack Wike

Scores of students under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) yesterday stormed the office of the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, in Alausa, Ikeja, to demand immediate reduction in the Lagos State University’s tuition fees. They decried loss of Nigerian students abroad, calling on the government at all levels to address the problem.

While waiting for the securitymen to open the Governor’s Office gate, they barricaded roads, chanting war songs and calling for a policy to make education free as it was during Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s era in the defunct Western Region.

They called on management of institutions of higher learning to reinstate all banned unions in the University of Lagos, College of Education, Ikere, Ekiti and Tai Solarin College of Education (TASCE) and others and conversion of the Higher National Diploma (HND) certificate to Bachelor of Science degree (B.Tech) in Technology. Led by Zone D Coordinator of NANS, Mr. Sunday Aseton, they said LASU remains the only state-owned university paying the highest school fees.

According to President of LASU Student Union Government, Yusu Nurudeen, the hike in the fee had created more problems for the students, adding that many indigent students had been forced to withdraw when they could not afford the fee.

The angry students called on President Goodluck Jonathan to implement 26 per cent budgetary allocation proposed by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and remove, with immediate effect, the Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, before it is too late. Responding, Governor Babatunde Fashola stressed that the decision to review the school fees was made as a result of the agitation by the students.

To cater for the indigent students who might not be able to pay the hike fees, Fashola said his administration also increased the budgetary allocation for scholarship from N700 million to N1.2 billion, assuring that he would do everything to give scholarship to students who allegedly dropped out as a result of hike in fees. Fashola called for another meeting with the students on Thursday, saying he would show them all the facts and report of the visiting panel that recommended hike in the fee.

Source: New Telegraph