Most model colleges in Lagos State on Sunday, 5 January, 2025, witnessed low resumption of students as the State Government insisted on N100,000 boarding fee payment for the second term academic year.
The N100,000 insistence by the State Government, indicated a massive 185.71 per cent increase when compared to the N35,000 paid by parents in the first term of the same academic year.
The meeting between the State Government, led by Tayo Ayinde, Chief of Staff to the Governor and Mr. Dapo Dawodu, State Chairman, Parents Forum of Model Colleges in Lagos, had hit a deadlock last November.
The State Government had insisted on N70,000 per term as boarding fee for the students, while the Parents’ Forum had appealed for between N45,000 to N50,000 per term.
But, surprisingly, when some parents wanted to make payment for the boarding fee on Monday, 6 January, 2025, through the Remita platform introduced by the State Government, the only option available for them was N100,000, which angered most parents.
Also, revealed that less than 5 per cent of the students resumed at the Igbokuta and Agbowa Model Colleges in Ikorodu, while the situation was not so different from other model colleges across the state.
Speaking on the issue, one of the concerned parents at Igbokuta Model College, Dr. Taofeek Ayinde, appealed to the Lagos State Government to rescind its decision on the hike on the boarding fee.
According to him, the government should listen to the plights of parents and guidance on the issue, stressing that the government did not show empathy with the parents especially at this time of economic doldrums.
He said: “Looking at the state of the economy, the government must listen to the yearning of the people in order not to send our children and wards out of school.
“We have some parents with three or four children in the colleges at this moment. Where do you expect such parents to get N400,000 every term from? The government should revert this bogus fee.
“If at all, nothing can be done, the boarding fee should not be more than N50,000 per term, not this about 200 per cent increment by the government. This is a bitter pill for parents to swallow.”
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