Lagos State Government has
offered to help any new student of the State’s University who stands the risk
of losing his/her admission as a result of indigene and any current student who
may have problem coping with the fees due to the same reason.
The government explaining
its principle of “No child must be left behind” said, it has since the
introduction of new fees regime in the Lagos State University three years ago
consecutively doubled its budget for scholarship for its residents to enable
indigent students have access to education. This is in addition to providing
bursary award to all indigenes in higher institutions across the country.
Addressing members of zone
D of National Association of Nigerian Students comprising South West, who made
a peaceful protest to him on the situation of higher education in the country, the
State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), said apart from raising the
budget, his administration also put a N200 million grant in place for LASU
students adding, “Our resolution is that no student will be left behind as a
result of inability to pay the school fees. We have raised the fees but we have
also provided a cushion”.
“Get admission to that
school and if you cannot pay we will give you scholarship to cover the course
you got admission for. The debate is access. If there are children who cannot
get in as a result let me have their list and the list of those who have
dropped out as a result. We will give scholarship. So in a sense, what we have
taken with one hand we have given back with the other hand”, he said.
Fashola, who recalled that
the decision to increase the fees was part of the recommendations of Visitation
Panel set up by his government in line with the demand of the students of the
school added, “You came to the House of Assembly and asked the House to pass a
resolution compelling me as Visitors to the School to set up a Visitation
Panel. It was your decision that the school be upgraded.
“We didn’t jump into LASU,
you came here to the House of Assembly asking the House to pass a resolution
that I should set up a Panel as Visitor of the School. The House passed the
Resolution and I set up the Panel and the consequent decisions are what we are
implementing, upgrade of Infrastructure, building new classrooms, new library,
a Senate Building and so on” the Governor said.
Noting that the
government’s intervention in the school has been yielding results , Fashola
explained that almost all the courses in
the school have been accredited by the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) as
against what it was pre-2011.
On the question of the
number of students the university could admit at a time, Fashola explained that
the State Government is limited by the National Universities Commission quota
on the number of students to be admitted at every session adding that it is
required for the purpose of accreditation of courses.
“Every University in this
country has a limit of the students it should admit based on the spaces that we
have and it is the NUC that allots that number as regulators of Universities
Education. Often times you may hear that accreditation has been withdrawn; it
is as a result of when schools are crowded”, the Governor explained.
He recalled that some Law
graduates from the school could not go to Law School four years after
graduation because NUC said the University exceeded the number of students to
admit adding that he had to personally intervene last year to the Director of
Education in the Law School to allow the graduates take their examination.
“If we continue to exceed
our quota then we will continue to have the problem”, the Governor said adding
that although Lagos State needs another
university his administration has resolved that it would not build another
university until LASU problem is sorted out and the institution repositioned “from what you call it to what it should be”.
He said the university was
built to accommodate both children of the rich and the poor pointing out that building a university exclusively for
children of the poor and another for children of the rich would tantamount to
setting a time bomb for the future.
“A university must be a
place where children of the poor and children of the rich can develop together
as a generation. For me and for those who advise us it was a time bomb waiting
to explode in future. When you develop a university and say it is for the poor
I don’t think there is a chance there. That is my view”.
Commenting on disruption of
academic activities in the school, the Governor who offered to meet with the
student on Thursday to show them the facts behind the decision to increase
fees, declared, “I want a solution in LASU. If you say disruption, it is not a
one-way thing. This one is not your lecturers. We have had some measure of stability
in LASU until this one. Even if the lecturers did anything to provoke you, you
should have sought to reach us”.
Based on the agreement
reached at Monday’s meeting, the Governor will meet with the students again on Thursday when the parties would
evolve ways of moving the school forward
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