The decision of the Lagos State Government to reduce the prohibitive tuition fees of students of the state-owned university may have doused the tension and protests the Sadly, protests over hikes in fees have unreasonable fees regime provoked, but it has not succeeded in restoring normalcy at the institution.
The resolve of the state government to reduce the tuition fees by between 34 and 60 percent across the different faculties and courses in the university is the outcome of the report of an Ad hoc committee set up to look into the demand of the Students Union for an outright reversal of the hike in the tuition fees, as well as the position and demands of other stakeholders, especially the Lagos State University (LASU) chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
According to the State Government, the approval for the reduction has been forwarded to the University Governing Council for implementation. The authorities of the institution were also directed to issue details of the new tuition fees to the students.
The students have, however, reportedly rejected the reduction in the fees, as they consider it inadequate. The LASU Students Union (LASU-SU) has demanded a 67 per cent reduction, across board. The union said that the state government, which had earlier increased the tuition fees from N25, 000 to N328,000, which is over 1,000 percent hike, could not now make between 34 and 60 per cent reduction. The union argued that it had earlier proposed N45,000 and N65, 000 tuition fees for freshers and returning students, respectively.
The state government increase of tuition fees in the university in 2011 has, for a long time now, been a cause of rancour. LASU-ASUU, which is also against the increase, said it has led to a sharp drop in fresh enrollment, from about 4000 before the increase in 2011, to just a little over 1000, in the last admission exercise. The crisis got to a head, last week, when the students poured into the streets in protest, and eventually stormed the office of the State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola. Security operatives had to use tear gas to disperse the students, while a number of them were arrested and charged to court for breach of public peace and order.
The continuing crisis in LASU over school fees hike is deeply regrettable. The disruption of academic activities in the institution, and the insistence of LASU- ASUU on embarking on a strike over the issue, and others relating to retirement age and promotion of staff, is worrisome.
It is unfortunate that Lagos State, which in times past was highly regarded for its
not been limited to LASU. The Federal Government-owned Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, in Osun State, and the University of Lagos, were also recently in the news on account of protests by their students over increased school fees. But, the protests in those institutions were quickly resolved.
We urge the Lagos authorities to quickly resolve the crisis in LASU, also. Any policy that will make it difficult for students to get a good education, on account of exorbitant tuition fees, is bad. High fees regime contradicts the State Government’s promise to make the state university available to all, irrespective of their socio-economic background, in accordance with Section 3(1) of the law establishing the institution.
Let increase in tuition fees be gradual, so that brilliant students are not kept out of school on account of inability to pay the fees. The planned 34 to 60 percent reduction across faculties and courses will still leave the fees very high. This is the time for both sides to this dispute to set ego aside. No institution of learning can excel, or even operate successfully, in the absence of peace and stability. Let the university and the students reach a compromise. The State Government should also quickly resolve the grouses of the academic staff of the institution, so that academic activities can resume in the institution immediately.
The lecturers, among other things, want the extension of their retirement age from 65 to 70 years, a demand the state government insists it will not grant. The government Ad hoc committee report rejecting the demanded increase in retirement age states that “employees cannot unilaterally extend their retirement age, unless the employer cedes total control of the institution to the employees, which is an impossible situation”. The government also rejected the lecturers’ demand for a one-term tenure for the Vice Chancellor. The lecturers and the state government need to resolve this disagreement, for the sake of the students.
Let all parties to the disputes that have kept LASU shut down make the necessary sacrifices and concessions to quickly resolve all the issues in contention, so that normal academic activities can resume. It is not good to keep students and lecturers at home for a long period of time. LASU students have been through a rough patch in recent times. It is time for all the stakeholders to work hard to restore normalcy in the institution.
source: http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=67921
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