update from laha
The new fee regime should stay
as govt proposed.* decrease by 20% from d new regime fee of fresh
students& increase in staylites fee by 50%.* 100,000 across board for
both the freshers& staylites.
DESPITE the general outcry against
the astronomical increases in fees at
the Lagos State University, the state
government is stubbornly forging
ahead with the outrageous charges.
But stakeholders should stand firm
and tell Governor Babatunde Fashola
that the fees are simply
unacceptable. In this disregard for
public opinion, the school authorities
recently issued a bulletin, directing
new students offered admission for
the 2011/2012 session to commence
registration and pay the new fees
immediately. This is despite an
ongoing inquiry into the matter by
the Lagos State House of Assembly.
Fashola said, "Before we took that
decision, the state executive council
carefully considered the current state
of infrastructure and personnel in the
institutions vis-a-vis what it should
be. And also considered the cost of
properly funding the institutions as
against what currently accrues to
them from all sources." And to
demonstrate the readiness of the
administration to enforce the new fee
regime at all costs, the Lagos State
Police Command deployed Armoured
Personnel Carriers to the university
premises in a bid to quell any
student’s protest.
The Fashola government is being
heavy-handed in handling the LASU
fees crisis. Those new fees are
exorbitant and all stakeholders –
students, parents/guardians,
legislators and the intelligentsia –
have said so, calling for a drastic
downward review. The review is
compelling as the new fees are not
affordable by the majority of those
who patronise public universities.
From an average of N25, 000 per
session, the fees were raised by
between 558 and 775 per cent.
Reacting under the pressure of
protests, LASU said the fees would
apply only to in-coming students
while returning students would
continue to pay the old rates.
The fees are scandalous: to study at
the school’s Arts and Education
faculties, parents must shell out
N193, 750 for each student per
session; Law students will pay
N248,750 each; Social and
Management Studies will attract
N223,750 each, while
Communication, Transport and
Engineering courses cost N238,750
per student. Parents whose children
dare to have ambitions of reading
medicine at LASU must be prepared
to spend N348, 750 per session.
These fees do not include cost of
accommodation, transport, books
and feeding. In a country where the
minimum wage is N18, 000 per
month, the fees are totally unjustified
in a publicly-owned university.
It needs to be emphasised that
education in a developing country
like Nigeria is a social service and
government and LASU authorities
should not convert university
education into a profit-making
venture at tax payers’ expense.
Perhaps they have forgotten that
Lagos is still ranked as an
educationally-disadvantaged state. A
state university is set up precisely to
provide an opportunity for the
financially-disadvantaged to access
university education and create a
pool of skilled manpower to move the
economy. It is the responsibility of
the state government to subsidise
LASU. It is not a discretionary duty to
be dispensed or withdrawn on a
whim. It is better that the state
government should opt out of
running a university altogether if it
cannot fund it, rather than treat
public opinion with the utter
contempt that it is attracting at
present.
The argument that the fees will apply
only to new students is
discriminatory and untenable. The
parents/guardians of the new
students are also taxpayers and are
entitled to equal treatment by the
state. A report that LASU authorities
have moved against students union
activities is also crude and
unbecoming of managers of a
tertiary educational institution.
Student unionism, under the
Constitution, derives from the
fundamental right of association; it is
not an indulgence by a benevolent
school administration.
Stakeholders should ask the governor
whether he campaigned for office on
the platform of raising LASU fees
seven hundred-fold. He and other
officials of the state’s education
ministry and LASU ought to listen to
the electorate who are the real
owners of LASU.
The United Nations Habitat, a UN
agency, reported in February 2009
that poverty level in Nigeria rose from
46 per cent in 1996 to an alarming
76 per cent, higher than the World
Bank’s poverty estimate of 70 per
cent. The Nigeria Living Standard
Survey produced jointly by the
Nigerian Bureau of Statistics,
European Union and the World Bank
in 2004 revealed that poverty
increased "nearly nine times" from
6.27 per cent in 1996 to 53 per cent
in 2004. Using strict UN
benchmarks, UN Habitat estimates
that Lagos State harbours 70.29 per
cent of poor people and 29.71 per
cent of non-poor. Most of those who
are financially secure do not send
their children/wards to LASU, but
typically opt for private, foreign or
federal universities. Those affected by
the extortionate fees are the
economically weak and vulnerable
and this is patently unfair.
The state House of Assembly should
not abandon the people on this
occasion. Lawmakers should insist,
and vehemently too, that the fees be
immediately rescinded. The students
should also be resolute but
scrupulously avoid being goaded into
unruliness and violence. When you
pursue a just cause, you don’t spoil
your case by employing youthful
exuberance or lawlessness. Parents/
Guardians should drop their
complacency and peacefully oppose
the unjust fees.
the astronomical increases in fees at
the Lagos State University, the state
government is stubbornly forging
ahead with the outrageous charges.
But stakeholders should stand firm
and tell Governor Babatunde Fashola
that the fees are simply
unacceptable. In this disregard for
public opinion, the school authorities
recently issued a bulletin, directing
new students offered admission for
the 2011/2012 session to commence
registration and pay the new fees
immediately. This is despite an
ongoing inquiry into the matter by
the Lagos State House of Assembly.
Fashola said, "Before we took that
decision, the state executive council
carefully considered the current state
of infrastructure and personnel in the
institutions vis-a-vis what it should
be. And also considered the cost of
properly funding the institutions as
against what currently accrues to
them from all sources." And to
demonstrate the readiness of the
administration to enforce the new fee
regime at all costs, the Lagos State
Police Command deployed Armoured
Personnel Carriers to the university
premises in a bid to quell any
student’s protest.
The Fashola government is being
heavy-handed in handling the LASU
fees crisis. Those new fees are
exorbitant and all stakeholders –
students, parents/guardians,
legislators and the intelligentsia –
have said so, calling for a drastic
downward review. The review is
compelling as the new fees are not
affordable by the majority of those
who patronise public universities.
From an average of N25, 000 per
session, the fees were raised by
between 558 and 775 per cent.
Reacting under the pressure of
protests, LASU said the fees would
apply only to in-coming students
while returning students would
continue to pay the old rates.
The fees are scandalous: to study at
the school’s Arts and Education
faculties, parents must shell out
N193, 750 for each student per
session; Law students will pay
N248,750 each; Social and
Management Studies will attract
N223,750 each, while
Communication, Transport and
Engineering courses cost N238,750
per student. Parents whose children
dare to have ambitions of reading
medicine at LASU must be prepared
to spend N348, 750 per session.
These fees do not include cost of
accommodation, transport, books
and feeding. In a country where the
minimum wage is N18, 000 per
month, the fees are totally unjustified
in a publicly-owned university.
It needs to be emphasised that
education in a developing country
like Nigeria is a social service and
government and LASU authorities
should not convert university
education into a profit-making
venture at tax payers’ expense.
Perhaps they have forgotten that
Lagos is still ranked as an
educationally-disadvantaged state. A
state university is set up precisely to
provide an opportunity for the
financially-disadvantaged to access
university education and create a
pool of skilled manpower to move the
economy. It is the responsibility of
the state government to subsidise
LASU. It is not a discretionary duty to
be dispensed or withdrawn on a
whim. It is better that the state
government should opt out of
running a university altogether if it
cannot fund it, rather than treat
public opinion with the utter
contempt that it is attracting at
present.
The argument that the fees will apply
only to new students is
discriminatory and untenable. The
parents/guardians of the new
students are also taxpayers and are
entitled to equal treatment by the
state. A report that LASU authorities
have moved against students union
activities is also crude and
unbecoming of managers of a
tertiary educational institution.
Student unionism, under the
Constitution, derives from the
fundamental right of association; it is
not an indulgence by a benevolent
school administration.
Stakeholders should ask the governor
whether he campaigned for office on
the platform of raising LASU fees
seven hundred-fold. He and other
officials of the state’s education
ministry and LASU ought to listen to
the electorate who are the real
owners of LASU.
The United Nations Habitat, a UN
agency, reported in February 2009
that poverty level in Nigeria rose from
46 per cent in 1996 to an alarming
76 per cent, higher than the World
Bank’s poverty estimate of 70 per
cent. The Nigeria Living Standard
Survey produced jointly by the
Nigerian Bureau of Statistics,
European Union and the World Bank
in 2004 revealed that poverty
increased "nearly nine times" from
6.27 per cent in 1996 to 53 per cent
in 2004. Using strict UN
benchmarks, UN Habitat estimates
that Lagos State harbours 70.29 per
cent of poor people and 29.71 per
cent of non-poor. Most of those who
are financially secure do not send
their children/wards to LASU, but
typically opt for private, foreign or
federal universities. Those affected by
the extortionate fees are the
economically weak and vulnerable
and this is patently unfair.
The state House of Assembly should
not abandon the people on this
occasion. Lawmakers should insist,
and vehemently too, that the fees be
immediately rescinded. The students
should also be resolute but
scrupulously avoid being goaded into
unruliness and violence. When you
pursue a just cause, you don’t spoil
your case by employing youthful
exuberance or lawlessness. Parents/
Guardians should drop their
complacency and peacefully oppose
the unjust fees.
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