…accuse school mgt of fleecing them
- No student has complained about new fee-Varsity spokesman
Students of the Ekiti State University have accused the school management of fleecing them through the imposition of a miscellaneous fee referred to as “internet connection fee” in addition to the high tuition fee they are still struggling to pay.
Findings by our correspondent revealed that many of the students have yet to fully pay the new tuition fee, which is between N175,000 and N230,000, depending on a student’s course of study.
They lamented that inspite of the fact that they had been trying to balance the payment of their school fees before the commencement of the first semester examination, the management had imposed additional miscellaneous fee of N14,500 for internet connection on them.
It was also gathered that in an alleged bid to compel the students to pay the internet fee, the school management introduced a mid-semester examination and allegedly threatened that any student who failed to pay the new fee would not be allowed to write the newly introduced examination.
The decision of the school management was said to have led to a protest by the angry students.
An executive member of the EKSU Student Union, who spoke to our correspondent pleading anonymity owing to the fear of being persecuted, said the internet wireless connection fee was an additional burden too heavy for them to bear, considering the high tuition and other fees already being charged by the university.
“We have vowed that this protest would continue until the Internet wireless charge is reversed. Enough is enough, we do not need a wireless internet connection in the university. We don’t need their internet connection anymore. We are not ready to pay heavy charges anymore. We are still struggling to pay up tuition fee; we cannot allow another unnecessary fee to be added to our parents’ burden,” he said.
One of the fresh students, Miss Elizabeth Oladejo, said, “I wish to say that I am not happy with the way the management of the Ekiti State University is charging us so much. Our tuition fees have always been going up, departmental fees are exorbitant; presently, they are charging us for wireless Internet connection that I do not use at all, because I don’t have an android phone or laptop. I regret coming to this university.”
Another aggrieved student, who simply gave his name as Ifeanyi, said that the Internet connection was not useful to them because most of the times it was not always available for their use. He added that students prefer to subscribe to Internet services from the various telecommunication outfits.
He further said that some universities in the country offered free WiFi services to their students and even visitors, who come to the school, free of charge.
Ifeanyi said, “Some schools give their students free WIFI to use; so why should ours be different. If you go to UNILAG, several students sit around their Senate building in order to use the internet, which is always
fast.
“Many of us use phones with various communication data; so, we don’t use the school internet connection because it is not useful to us. We, therefore, want to appeal to the management to remove the wireless internet connection from the school charges because it is not convenient for us and our parents, who are yet to receive eight months’ salaries from the state government.”
In his reaction, the Deputy Registrar, Information and Corporate Affairs of the university, Mr. Ajibade Olubunmi, said he had not received any complaint from any quarters regarding the internet fee and
related issues.
Olubunmi promised to investigate and get back to our correspondent on the issue.
“I am not aware of any student’s complaints or issue about the internet on this campus, but I will investigate and get back to you,” he said.
But as at the time of filing this report, he had yet to do so.
