Claims by the leadership of the Lagos State University Students’ Union that the fee regime introduced in 2011 has led to a high rate of drop outs were at the weekend debunked by the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Professor John Obafunwa.
Professor Obafunwa, who spoke during an interactive session with Senior Journalists, said there was no truth in the claims as investigations by the authorities of the University revealed that majority of the students who dropped out did so because of reasons other than the fee hike.
According to the University don, when the list was checked against the records of the institution, it was discovered that some of the names on the list submitted by the students were those of non students of the institution while others were those who dropped out because they did not meet the appropriate CGP of the school.
Explaining that it was strange that the students’ Union would take to the Streets even after the Governor and Visitor to the school had stepped in, the Vice Chancellor recalled that during the last meeting between the students’ Union Executives and the Governor at the Lagos House, Alausa, “they mentioned that issue, the Governor reminded them that he had at the first meeting asked them to submit such names (those that dropped out due to fees) to him. So they submitted some names to him, and he gave the list to me.”
“We went back to the University to look at them. Of course, we found some of them were not even students of LASU. We saw some who actually dropped out, but because they did not meet up with the appropriate CGP. We found that some people had actually collected bursary and scholarship and either dropped out or still did not pay,” the Vice Chancellor said.
According to him, “We categorized them also based on state of origin. I remember the Governor saying that if there are indeed indigent students who dropped out because they could not pay, government would pay on their behalf, and I don’t see any government doing better than that.”
He recalled that prior to the meeting with the Governor, even the Governing Council had at some point before the present crisis, met with the students to say ‘look we need to do something about the funding of this University. We are going to offer scholarships to brilliant students regardless of their state of origin provided you can prove that you are indigent’.
Wondering why the fee regime of the institution would generate problems now three years after it was introduced, Obafunwa said because of the many palliatives introduced by Government to cushion the effect on parents and guardians, initial protests against the policy soon died down and the incoming students paid without complaints.
“When the fees were introduced in 2011, it was stated very clearly that it would apply to only incoming students because government thought they had a contract with the old students, and they had to keep it. In doing that government also decided to increase the vote for scholarship and for bursary, and I know a number of students who enjoy both scholarship and bursary,” the Vice Chancellor said.
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