…say levies are for phony services …accuse school authorities of exploitation
Many students in higher institutions across Nigeria are currently enraged over the incessant payment of miscellaneous charges usually added to the statutory tuition fees they pay by their school authorities.
These miscellaneous charges usually come in various forms and under various headings such as insurance charges, cultural levy, Identification Card charges, vocational skills, hand books and technology fees, among others. But there has been no proper justification by the school authorities for the collection of these miscellaneous fees and charges from the hapless students.
The vocational fee in our school fees breakdown is not really justifiable. We pay the sum of N25, 000 and apart from that we pay N3, 000 every first semester. They aren’t rendering the services, they are only using it as a source of income for the school. The classes hardly hold
According to the students, the extra charges are only being collected by the school authorities without providing them the services for which such monies were collected.
Some university students, who spoke with our correspondent, lamented that the collection of these miscellaneous charges, which they described as an act of exploitation by the school authorities, usually left them cash-strapped and broke, as they were not taken into consideration by their parents in giving them their tuition fees.
A student of the University of Lagos, who pleaded anonymity, berated the school authorities for allegedly collecting charges every session for identification cards and maintenance without actually making the ID cards available or providing the maintenance they were being made to pay for annually.
“The only thing I haven’t been receiving, but which I pay for is the ID. I don’t have an ID card ever since I entered this school. But I pay for it every session,” he said.
Speaking in the same vein, Rasaq of the University of Lagos claimed that he paid the sum of N10, 000 for the laboratory services, which he had never used.
“In my receipt, there is space for Laboratory Service. But I do not use the Laboratory because my course does not require it. But I am paying for it,” he said.
Further investigations by our correspondent revealed a similar situation at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State. Inspite of the fact that students paid for identity cards included in the school fees receipt breakdown, they had to pay another fee for the same document.
“We paid for ID card as a fresher, we did not get it. I am in my final year now; last session we paid for it again, we didn’t get it. Although we’ve got it this session, we paid another money apart from the one that was part of the break down of the fees. I think it was N500,” A student, who preferred not to be named said.
Another student at the Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, expressed disgust at the extra fees and charges he and his colleagues were being made to pay by the school authorities.
According to him, students pay the sum of N25, 000 for vocational skills every semester and extra N3, 000 every first semester for the training and services that are not provided.
She said, “The vocational fee in our school fees breakdown is not really justifiable. We pay the sum of N25, 000 and apart from that we pay N3, 000 every first semester. They aren’t rendering the services, they are only using it as a source of income for the school.
“The classes hardly hold, but we will just be given the recipes. Mine is catering and fruit juice. They call the fee registration fee; the recipes given are not worth the money we pay. It is done once in a session, but at the end, a certificate is given for the course we didn’t do. Even if we are half baked in it, it would have been better.”
Students at the Kogi State University are not left out in what many of them have described as “simple exploitation.” KSU students claimed that they had been more hit by this scourge of unjustifiable miscellaneous fees charged by schools.
According to students, who also pleaded anonymity, virtually everything they paid for, apart from their tuition fees, were not eventually provided by the school authorities.
One of the aggrieved students said, “Every fee in Kogi State University is fraudulent. Apart from our tuition fees, we do not get effective service for the other fees in the receipt. Imagine, some of the fees are not even effective. We all paid N500 each as stated in the school fee break down for Identification card as freshers, about 200 students in my department. I am now in 400level and I do not have a school ID card. This is not happening just in my department alone. All my friends with whom I gained admission have yet to get their ID
cards.
“Imagine how much the school rake in from that ID card fee? Calculate N500 paid by each student that gained admission in my set. It’s a huge sum and the school collect that from us for providing us nothing at the end of the day,” he lamented.
Another student, who simply identified himself as Habeeb, told our Correspondent that every session, the students were made to pay the sum of N5000 for Lab-studio, workshop and practical workshop. But expressed regret that none of these had ever been provided them since they had been paying the charges.
“My department doesn’t require practical or any workshop and even if we are to do any workshop, we are always divided into groups and we contribute money from our own pockets. So, what is the use of the N5, 000 we pay every session?” he said.
A student in the university’s Mass Communication Department, whose course require the use of the Lab-studio, workshop and practical, said inspite of the payment of the miscellaneous charges meant for the provision of the same facilities every year, the department still lacked a functioning
studio.
Other students of the school also claimed that they were made to pay the sum of N500 every session for insurance and N3,000 for technology, adding that these service paid for were never enjoyed by the students.
A student of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, who simply identified himself as Toluwalase, explained that the authorities included Laboratory use fee in the breakdown of tuition fees for students who did not use such facilities.
“I do not understand what a development levy is in my school fees breakdown, but I know what a Laboratory Use fee is? My course does not require me using the Laboratory. Since I have been paying for it as part of my fees, I have never used it. Even if I will use it later, it should be included then in that year alone. But they’ve been including it since my 100 level till now, and I have not used it for
once,” he observed.
At the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, investigations by our correspondent revealed that starter packs for 100 level students and direct entry students, usually paid for as part of the school fees, were not given to all the students
eventually.
A student of the university alleged that after paying for internet connection, they usually couldn’t access it.
“Wi-Fi issues, after paying for this, the network is not available for students to use. It rarely works,” he said.
Expressing her displeasure, another student from the University of Abuja, Fatima, claimed that practical fee of N1,000 was always included as part of the school fees paid, but individual students still had to cough out the same amount before being allowed to partake in the real
practical.
“Like our practical, which is part of our school fees, we pay N1000. Meanwhile, we are made to contribute sometimes N100, N50 and N20 as the case may be, and we are 420 students in class. Recently, we were told to buy a goat and we were made to contribute N100 each; this is N42,000. You just have to pay because the lecturer might end up using the list to award marks. The lecturer may not even give any test; that may be his or her 30 marks,” Fatima said.
Students’ allegations of exploitation untrue
— Authorities
Denying the students’ allegations of exploitation through miscellaneous charges, authorities of schools accused the students of blackmail.
According to school authorities, the management are always under obligation to account for every fee charged, while the students are also given the services they pay for.
The spokesperson of the OAU, Ile-Ife, Mr. Abiodun Olanrewaju, said students might just encounter some initial delay, but they received the services at the end of
the day.
“This is not correct, we have a brand and we do things that way. Why students may encounter a little bit of delay in getting what they pay for is because we wanted to be sure that those whose pictures and the names appear, correlate. That’s all,“ Olanrewaju said.
All efforts to get to the Public Relations Officer of the Kogi State University, Mr. Joshua Edogbo, proved abortive. But the Head of the university’s Mass Communication Department, Dr. Gabriel Ottah, told our correspondent that the charges were central charges used by the school management and which they could account for.
He, however, said that the studio fee was used by the department
alone.
