NOUN Students Protest Fees Hike

Harrison Iyoha

Students of the National Open University Of Nigeria, NOUN, Benin Study Centre, this week, took to the streets of Benin, Edo state capital, to protest the excessive fees hike by the school management.

This came just a few days after students of Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife, were sent home for protesting hike in their school fees.

Aigbokhia Paul, who spoke with P.M.NEWS Campus Square, “Students of NOUN are tired of this daylight robbery. The increment is harsh and detrimental. We cannot continue  to suffer and smile in silence as if all is well with us. We will get there soon and they will know we are no longer the babies they take us to be”.

Peters explained: “Can you imagine that we have to pay a minimum of 112,000 naira in a session now? NOUN school fees and course registration are paid every semester, how can this be done in a 21st century?

“The minimum amount you register for a course is N2,500, while some could be for as high as N3,500 and students apply for  a minimum of 7 courses in a semester.

“That does not include the fact that  some will have to pay N13,000 as school fees for another semester as against N2,500 that we used to pay.

“Students progressing  to another level also have to pay N23,000 which was formerly N15,000. All of these are not part of the registration fee for examination which leaped from N1000 to N2000.

“Students of NOUN are aggrieved and we want our voices to be heard so that the fees will be reverted”.

Mass protest over increase  in students’ fees without prior warning have triggered student protests and resistance in different parts of Nigeria.

Elizabeth, another student of NOUN in their Ikeja Lagos, study center, said: “How can we be paying school fees every semester like secondary school students? “The fees are ‘crazy’ and there are hardly lecturers for us. They always advise us to go home and read for examinations.

“I am yet to resume for the new semester because I am yet to pay my school fees. I really don’t know why they came up with this system of paying school fee every semester.”

The National Open University of Nigeria is an Open and Distance Learning, ODL institution, the first of its kind in the West African sub-region. The university, at present, has 54 Centres spread across the country.

The National Open University of Nigeria operates from its Administrative Headquarters in Lagos. Nigeria, with Study Centres throughout the country.

Over 50 programmes and 750 courses, from Certificate, Diploma and Degree levels, are being offered in the institution.