…say ‘we still defecate in pit latrines’
Aggrieved students of the Osun State Polytechnic, Iree, have accused the management of the institution of allegedly perpetuating a yearly hike in tuition fees, saying the insensitivity exhibited by the school authorities over their complaints left so much to be desired.
They argued that inspite of the fact that the authorities had been increasing tuition fees every academic session, both the school management and the state government had failed to provide basic infrastructure for the students’ convenience, thereby making the campus not conducive for learning.
The OSPOLY students further accused the school management of a failure to handle the matter with all the seriousness it deserved.
A member of the Student Union Government of the Polytechnic, who pleaded anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, told our correspondent that in January, the management of the school increased the tuition fee paid by Higher National Diploma students from N60,000 to N80,000, resulting in the staging of a peaceful protest.
According to him, the reaction of the school authorities to the students’ action was the alleged nullification of the admission of the student leaders of each department, popularly known as governors. He also claimed that a list of the affected departmental governors was also made public by the school authorities.
He said, “We had a peaceful protest in January over yearly hike of school fees, and before we were briefed on anything, the management pasted the names of governors of departments, declaring their admission into the school illegal.
“The affected students, who were frightened, had to mobilise students to pay the required fees within a period of a short time, even though it was not convenient, so that their governors’ admission would be restored. The students had no choice than to pay.
“Now, in April again, the tuition fees to be paid by the new intakes for the Ordinary National Diploma for the 2018\2019 academic session have also been increased from N45,000 to N57,000, but we are afraid to protest because they could nullify our admission again. All the management does is to threaten us and force us to pander to their whims and caprices.”
A Higher National Diploma 1 student of Civil Engineering, Adeola Oyeyemi, affected by the tuition hike, told our correspondent that the continuous increment of fees might jeopardise his dream of becoming a full-fledged graduate because he had been fending not only for himself, but also his younger ones.
Unsure about how to get the money to pay the new tuition fee, he expressed fears that his academic future was now hanging in the balance.
Oyeyemi said, “My father is a pensioner and my mother, a housewife. How can I afford that? For me, I was careful about the polytechnic to attend because of the financial state of my parents. I chose Osunpoly carefully because at the time I felt I could cope with the fees. But now, this increment has weakened me. Scholarships are not available and bursary is also not forthcoming.
“Even if we think we have to pay more, it won’t be this expensive as there is insecurity and infrastructural decay. We still defecate in pit latrines. The exorbitant fees won’t change the condition of things, whether in the classrooms or library. The indigenes also exploit us as things are expensive here. You can be attacked in your house in the town and your belongings stolen. We reported this to the authorities many times, but nothing has been done about it.
“There is no accommodation for the students inside the school premises. So, most students prefer to rent rooms close to the school and the house owners take advantage of that by charging us high rent. But now the school fee has been increased astronomically. It is sad that our leaders are treating us this way. We know that most of them enjoyed free education.”
Another student of the institution, who simply identified herself as Bose, described the yearly fee hike by the school management as both outrageous and
oppressive.
Bose, who is studying Mass Communication at the polytechnic, claimed that the fee hike was an attempt to commercialise education as the lecturers of the school, too, usually made it compulsory for students to buy handout materials as part of the continuous assessment.
She said, “I cannot afford the fee, just like many other students. The increment is an attempt by the government to alienate the poor from getting education. It is an attempt to generate massive revenue for the state from the poor. I must say that many parents of the students in the school are civil servants, traders and artisans. We carefully chose Osun Poly because it’s a low-tuition school.
“We don’t have enough classrooms, we have old and outdated books in the library. Yet, our lecturers make it compulsory for us to buy handouts and if we don’t, then the course automatically becomes a carry over for the student. The projects in the school have been funded externally, and even at that, the school gets its internally generated revenue through a special programme called DPP- Daily Part Time Programme, which is for OND students alone.
“This programme is different from the regular full time and the regular part time programmes, which students run on a daily basis in the morning and evening. The students undergoing the DPP programme pay very high tuition fee. The only polytechnic project is the new auditorium. There is no assurance that the money realised from the increment would be used to develop the school, because we didn’t see the impact of the money paid by us on the school.”
Efforts by our correspondent to get the reaction of the Rector of the institution, Dr. Jacob Olusola Agboola, proved abortive as all calls made to his phone didn’t go through. Also, text messages sent to his phone as at the time of filing this report were not
replied.
