THE students of Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro (FPI), have decried the increase in tuition fee for the 2022/2023 academic session and have urged the authorities of the institution to revert the decision.
The executive of the Students Union (SU) also argued that the newly introduced professional courses namely, CISCO, ROBOTICS/UAE and MCAT, which were cited as one of the reasons for the increment, should not be made compulsory but rather optional for the students.
They also proposed a 70 to 30 percent instalment payment of all fees to the institution to alleviate the burden of the students and that of their parents.
However, in a meeting between the management and students, the new rector of the institution, Dr Mukail Akinde, claimed that it was not his new administration that increased the tuition fees, but the recently-concluded administration.
He stated categorically that he was only implementing the past administration’s decision in this regard.
He noted that “what actually led to the increase in the tuition fee was that the school was in debt and running short of funds.”
He, however, highlighted some of the new developments that would be experienced in the polytechnic if the students could comply with the new directive.
The rector said that the present administration is working assiduously to surmount long-standing challenges in the areas of electricity, possessing of effective biometric identification gadgets, practical halls and ICT centres, library, among others.
“Currently, it is only the practical halls that are being powered by inverters, but plans are underway to extend the usage of inverters to the lecture rooms and hostels on the campus.
“The school toilets would also be taken care of adequately and improved upon with constant water supply,” he noted.
He hinted that plans are on top gear to begin to employ and pay students to do menial jobs on campus in order to empower them financially.
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