LAUTECH Students Protest Hike In School Fees

By Sherifat Akinloye & Kazeem Rahmon

Students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), embarked on peaceful protest in Osogbo and Ogbomosho against the over increment in their school fees announced by the school management last Monday.

The institution which is owned by the duo of Osun state government and Oyo state increased the school fee from N65,000 to N200,000 for indigene and non-indigene from N72,500 to N250,000 which is more than 100percent according to the students.

The aggrieved students started the peaceful protest at Ola-Iya and later moved to the state secretariat Abere in Osogbo strictly monitored by men of the Nigeria Police.

While speaking some students’ representatives, said a similar protest was holding simultaneously in Oyo state to make the students stance known to the two state governments.

A member of student representative council, Bolarinwa Kabir, Medical Laboratory Science 500L, said the sudden increment in the school fee is too high for students to bear saying that the school has never witnessed such high increase of fee.

The students’ representative sought the review from the duo state government demanding that the school fee should be reversed to the old fee.

He said; “I have spent over 5 years in school, right from my under graduate to my 500level and it is like the two states are playing with our future”.

He continued that during the students’ meeting with the school management, it was revealed to the student representatives that the two governments cannot fund the institution again and that was what caused the increment.

Another student representative who spoke with newsmen, Falolu Israel, from the faculty of Nursing Science and Environmental Technology lambasted the Oyo and Osun state Governments saying that education is everyone’s right which the leaders got freely while in school.

He added that any student who withdraw from the institution due to high increment may not have access to education again.

The students appealed to the authority to reverse its decision, saying such skyrocketed increment in fee could discourage parents who are willing to send their children to the institution.