IIaro Poly students protest against increase in tuition fees

THE students of Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro (FPI) have rejected the increase in tuition fees for the 2022/2023 academic session and have urged the authorities of the institution to reverse the decision.

The Students Union (SU) board also argued that the newly introduced professional courses, namely CISCO, ROBOTICS/UAE and MCAT, which were cited as one of the reasons for the increase, should not be made compulsory but rather optional for the students .

They also proposed an installment payment of 70 to 30 percent of all costs to the institution to ease the burden on the students and their parents.

However, in a meeting between the management and the students, the new rector of the institution, Dr. Mukail Akinde, claimed that it was not his new government that raised tuition fees, but the recently closed government.

He categorically stated that he was only implementing the decision of the previous government in this regard.

He noted that “actually what led to the tuition increase was that the school was in debt and short on funds.”

However, he highlighted some of the new developments the university of applied sciences would experience if students met the new guideline.

The rector said that the current administration is working diligently to solve longstanding challenges in areas such as electricity, possession of effective biometric identification gadgets, practice rooms and ICT centers, library.

“Currently, only the practice rooms are powered by inverters, but there are plans to expand the use of inverters to the lecture halls and hostels on campus.

“The school toilets would also be adequately maintained and improved with a constant water supply,” he noted.

He hinted that plans are in high gear to hire and pay students for menial jobs on campus to make them financially stronger.

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