The All Progressives Congress APC in Oyo State has lamented the recent increase in the tuition fees payable by the students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso (LAUTECH) describing it as an attempt to take university education away from the masses who desire a robust future for their children and wards.
APC in Oyo State said it received reports that authorities of the Oyo state-owned tertiary institution released a document indicating another increase in the tuition charges on both the returning and fresh students who are preparing for a new academic session.
“This development came in less than a year that the state government ordered a similar hike in school fees for the students of the institution,” Olawale Sadare, the publicity secretary of the main opposition party in the state said in a statement sent to LEADERSHIP on Friday.
Oyo APC also challenged Governor Seyi Makinde to clarify issues on the allegations that he was foot dragging on fulfilling the payment of the sum agreed upon as compensation to the Osun State government at the time of the termination of the joint ownership of the institution about four years ago.
“With this yet another astronomical hike in the tuition fees imposed on the students of LAUTECH for the second time within a year, Governor Makinde has again exposed himself as anti-poor. By implications, the PDP administration does not care about the future of those children of the poor whose only chance to acquire university education rests on affordable fees expected to be charged by public institutions such as LAUTECH which is owned by Oyo state,” the statement said.
Sadare, in the statement added that, “An average student admitted to study in LAUTECH would naturally face certain problems especially in the areas of transportation and accommodation all through his stay and coupled with the reality of the current economic situation in the country, the woes of many poor students have been compounded.”
APC described the hike in tuition fees from N404,200 to N782,200 and N316,700 to N694,700 for non-indigene and indigene respectively as a height of insensitivity and hypocrisy on the part of the state government, noting that the Governor Makinde-led administration met the tuition fee at N106,000 in 2019 when he came into office.
The opposition party noted the palpable agony of most parents who have been traumatised since the latest hike was announced by the authorities of the institution.
The party maintained that no parent or guardian deserves to die or develop depression in their quest to educate their children or wards, adding that the Makinde administration should realise “that no public school should be made a revenue base through which few individuals in the corridor of power would continue to enrich themselves.”