A crisis is brewing between students of the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Iwofe, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and the school authority over alleged arbitrary increments in school fees and levies.
Although the new academic session is yet to commence, the institution’s students, on Tuesday, embarked on a peaceful protest over the introduction of N36,800 ‘professional development fees’, in addition to their normal fees.
The students who stormed the school on Tuesday morning demanded that the authorities revert to the fees, which did not include an additional N36,800 ‘Professional Development Fees’.
The protesters carried banners with various inscriptions while chanting songs that said, “Our school fees must reduce” to the former rate.
A copy 2024/2025 Session obtained by Niger Daily News revealed that non-indigene intakes in the sciences could pay up to N178,500 as school fees alone.
Photo: IAUE fees for 2024/25 session
The new figure is N41,100 more than the N133,400 paid for the same course last year.
One of the students, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “The last time they introduced a ‘Portal Access’ fee of N7,300, which must be paid before a student can access the portal.
“Now when we got to school in preparation for resumption later this month, we saw that the school management had introduced another levy tagged ‘Professional Development Fees’ of N36,800 per student.
“These arbitrary fees are too much, particularly with the current state of the economy,” our source stated.
