AAUA: Parents And Students Plead With Management On School Fee Payment

Parents and students of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko have called on the school management to be lenient with the policy of ‘No School fees no examination’ in the forthcoming 2020/2021 first semester examinations slated to hold on November 22nd, 2021. 

Some parents and students made the pleas while speaking with CAMPUS REPORTER, shortly after the matriculation ceremony held on the 11th of November 2021, while others spoke via phone call when contacted for comment.  

Earlier, the management of the institution reiterated its stance on stopping unregistered students from partaking in the forthcoming first semester examinations for the 2020/2021 academic session, through a circular released to the university community, dated 30th September 2021, with ref no: AD/REG/SEN/SDE/VOL.1/04, signed by the Deputy Registrar Academy, O. Oluwarinde. 

Campus Reporter earlier reported that the management had directed the Acting Director of ICTAC to download the list of all students duly registered every semester, with effect from the first semester of the 2021 academic session and forward the same to all the departments three (3) weeks before the commencement of the semester examinations.”

Also, the report captured that students who have not paid the first semester fees should be denied from partaking in the mid-semester test. 

“No Going Back On The Policy” – VC

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Olugbenga Ige, reiterated during an interview with CAMPUS REPORTER that the management will not revert its stand on the no school fees no examination policy. 

Professor Ige proclaimed that only students who are registered and have paid for the first semester will be permitted to write the forthcoming examinations.

“I had introduced a work and study scheme which captured mostly the indigene, where we have 200 students who were employed and were being paid every month. They worked two hours every day a week so that it will not affect their academic performance. As I am speaking with you, those employed under the scheme have been paid their full salary and we are currently working on employing a new set of people.”

The VC added that the management approved instalment payments for the returning students to ease their stress as the country’s economy is not currently favourable for many citizens. 

When asked how he expects the ‘work and study scheme salary’ to pay up the students fees, he said: “Students employed for the scheme are collecting N10,000 per month and a semester is three months which accumulated salary is N30,000, and some students are paying N80,000 per session, if divided into two, a semester payment of N80,000 is N40,000. When we minus N40,000 from N30,000, it will remain N10,000 and there are no students on campus that can not generate N10,000 per semester. Therefore, there is no excuse for not paying their school fees.”

“Go and ask those students who wrote the West African Examination Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO), National Business And Technical Examination Board (NABTEB), Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) and General Certificate of Education (GCE), if they did not pay before sitting for the examination,” he said.

Professor Ige noted that conducting examinations is not merely by mouth but with money, because some materials have to be bought while others need to be printed. 

More so, he reiterated that any students who planned to cause violence during the examinations will be restricted from the school.

“If there are students planning to cause violence (protest) during the examination, they are going to leave the institution for us.” 

He reinforced that the university was not the poorest in the world to allow students to proceed sitting for examinations without payment.

Parents And Students Speak

Mr Paul Olakunle called on the management to consider the current situation of the country by allowing the students to sit for the forthcoming examinations. He noted that some parents are struggling to pay house rent, food and school fees and no parent will allow their wards to sit and remain idle at home, urging the management to review the policy. 

“The country’s economy is bad and at the verge of collapsing and there is no money in circulation. Most students are struggling to pay their fees themselves and if the policy should stand, many things will be spoiled.”

Corroborating Mr Olakunle’s point, Pastor Ahmed Olaniyi urged the management to take into consideration parents who have more than three children in universities, who are majorly market women.

“Things are not moving in this country and hardly will you see a market woman that will make Ten Thousand Naira a day compared to when money was surplus money in the calculation. This current government is in hardship and people are only struggling for meals.”

He expressed optimism that the lord that returned the Zion lost will return to Nigeria and everything will come back to normal. 

“I am a civil servant who is collecting 65% salary and the salaries are not regularly paid and I have four children in universities and polytechnics, whom I have to provide for. Tell me how do I pay when my salary is not coming?” said Mrs Oluwatoyin Olaboye.

She added that, before the salaries come in most times, there are expenses waiting for it, like deducting bank loans, food and other miscellaneous expenses.

Olafunke Atunse said the school had to rethink the policy. She urged the management to allow the newly admitted students to pay two times (semester by semester) by setting a deadline for each semester’s payment.

Oluwakemisola Amuleya, a student from the institution described the policy as an inconvenience stating that many students are sponsoring themselves to school. 

“We plead with the school management to consider us. Some students are without parents, guardians and helpers, and they have to go the extra mile in getting tuition fees, all these should be considered by the management.”

“We will pay, management should please consider us and take us as their children, our parents are doing all they can but the economic situation of Nigeria is bad and we do not want to be restricted from writing examinations. We do not want to be a tout on the street, we want to be educated and added to our country,” said Oluwapelumi Israel. 

According to the school calendar, the first semester examinations for the 2020/2021 academic session will commence on the 22nd of November and end on the 11th of December, 2021.