PRESS STATEMENT
The
Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife management recently announced a new,
but outrageous fee regime for her pre-degree programme. Under this new fee
arrangement, the male candidates admitted for the pre-degree programme are expected
to pay N177, 500 while the female candidates pay N212, 500 before starting online registration as students. The female students are
paying more as a result of hostel accommodation charge.
The
Education Rights Campaign (ERC) totally condemns this fee regime and demands
its immediate reversal. We call on the OAU Students’ Union,
staff unions, civil society groups and Nigerian workers and parents to jointly
reject this mass-scale extortion.
This
new fee was an inconsiderate leap from the exorbitant N152, 500, which students
in this programme paid last session. There is no reason for this hike other than the quest by the university to make huge profit at the risk of impoverishing parents and pricing education out of the reach of the
toiling masses.
The
OAU Pre-degree programme runs for about a year as an equivalent of UTME for
candidates seeking admission into undergraduate courses in the University. In
recent period, tens of thousands of students always apply for the programme
because of limited chances of getting admission through UTME. Parents are often
enticed by the notion that preferences are given to candidates who have
successfully completed the programmes over their UTME counterparts in the
undergraduate admission system of the school. In fact, this is not true,
because thousands usually get admitted into the Pre-degree programme, whereas the
university has an admission capacity for only a tiny fraction of this huge
population. But the OAU management simply preys on the thirst of candidates and
parents for tertiary education to squeeze their pockets dry.
Aside
the fact that running this programme does not guarantee admission for students,
the conditions which students undergo for the period of the programme are
inhumane and harsh. Erratic water and power supply is the order of the day at
the Moro campus situated in Ipetu Modu, Osun State. Yearly, students in this programme always complain about high rate
of insecurity, including burglary and rape.
The
programme has continued to serve as a business venture for the OAU management.
For us in the ERC, the idea of a pre-degree programme is an ill-result of the
continuous underfunding of education by the government which has resulted in fewer admission spaces. If education has been appropriately funded, there would be no absurdity of limited admission spaces and
university managements like OAU’s would not have been able to
turn the thirst for literacy into a money-making machine.
With
the recent increment in pre-degree fee, the Prof Tale Omole-led OAU management
has only maintained its consistent record of pro-rich, anti-poor policies in
the university. In reality, the only image that comes to mind after mentioning
OAU is the slogan “POOR STUDENTS ARE NOT WELCOME HERE.” This new hike is coming
at the heel of a similar increment in the undergraduate charges of the
university, which was protested and still being resented by undergraduate and
post-graduate students of the university. While the university had promised
that the fee would improve the conditions of learning for the undergraduate
students, the reality of conditions of learning on OAU campus today is abysmal
and pathetic. Only last month, students on the Ile-Ife campus of the university
protested an over 7-day power outage and erratic water supply. It follows to
say that the new regime of charges on the Moro campus of the university, if not
rejected swiftly by parents and Nigerians, would not mean any substantial
improvement in the conditions of learning and living on that campus.
The
Education Rights Campaign (ERC) demands a halt to
the business-oriented education policy of the Prof. Tale Omole led
administration, which has made poor parents to go out of their way to pay for
the profit-first logic of the institution. We call on the OAU Students’ Union to reject this hike and organise actions against
its implementation.
If
this current pattern of fee hikes continues, then education in coming period would be an exclusive right
of the rich, and luxury for the poor majority. We demand adequate funding of education and
democratic management of education to include elected representatives of
education workers and students. We also demand improvement in the quality,
facilities and conditions of existing tertiary institutions and the
establishment of more schools to address the shortage of admission spaces.
Signed,
Omole Ibukun
Secretary
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