ERC demands Reversal of YABATECH hike in fee

The Education Rights Campaign, ERC, has called on the management of Yaba College of
Technology, YABATECH, to totally reverse its fees hike for students of the institution noting that the decision to partially reverse fees of full time students to N22,500 was a half measure. It also asked the institution to reinstate its students’ union starting with a caretaker committee, and the suspended students.
According to the ERC Lagos Coordinator, Nurudeen Omomeewa, though the hiked fees were not fully reversed, ERC welcomes these concessions which were won by struggle of students and activists.
He said, “we are concerned that while making these concessions, YABATECH authorities neither reduced nor reversed the fee of part-time students which was equally increased astronomically. We consider this a marginalization of the part time students who also put demands forward during the negotiations for a reversal of their hiked fees.
“We hereby call on the authorities of YABATECH to reverse the fee of part-time students and ensure that issues of poor welfare conditions and inadequate teaching infrastructures which affect all categories of students are immediately looked into.

“We say that on no ground should the management marginalize the demands of the part time students. We believe part-timers are legitimate students with valid admission; therefore, their interest must be jealously guarded as that of the full timers. We are united by studentship and indivisible as such no one should be marginalized in the benefits of struggle.

“We call on the students not to allow the management to divide them. They should continue to campaign through mass meetings, media, rallies and peaceful demonstrations for the fee of part-time students to be reversed and for improvement in the funding of Yabatech and its democratic management.
“Public education must be properly funded by the government and democratically managed in such a way that elected representatives of students union and workers’ unions are involved in the decision making organs and the running of the school. To this end, we consider unacceptable the government anti-poor directive to management of public higher institutions to find means of raising their internally generated revenue in order to enable them meet the growing cost of running their schools.”