BY TONY EDIKE

ENUGU- Enugu State government has dismissed as false claims by some students of the Institute of Management and Technology, IMT, Enugu, that it had increased fees charged by the institution.

Commissioner for Education, Dr. Simon Ortuanya, who reacted to Monday’s protest by IMT students over alleged increase in school fees, said development, acceptance, accreditation, registration, medical and technology fees paid by the students had remained the same.

Dr. Ortuanya disclosed that until recently, what the students of IMT were paying was N49,000 per student, adding that N10,000 recently added to their fees was agreed upon after consultations between the Students Union Government and management of the school.

The commissioner stated that the additional N10,000 was to take care of services provided by Afri-Hub; an ICT company provider, as agreed by the IMT management and the Students Union leadership of the school.

According to Dr. Ortuanya, Afri-Hub will provide the students with about 600 sets of computers, access to websites, among other facilities, that would be cheaper and better than what obtained elsewhere.

He stated that although students hostel accommodation fee had been increased from N25,000 to N40,0000, such facility was optional and not compulsory for the students.

The commissioner stated that before taking these decisions, the school authority consulted with the students’ union leaders and  agreed on them, adding that those on demonstration were on their own and did not have the backing of their students’ union since none of the union members came with them.

On the new students admitted for the Ordinary National Diploma, OND programmes, Ortuanya said that fees payable by each student is now, acceptance  fee N10.000 as against N5,000, development  fee N10,000 as against N6,000, registration/ materials fee N5,000 as against N3,000 among others.

He, however, pointed out that the state government has invited the students’ union government of the institution for discussions with a view to finding out what prompted the students’ protest march to the Government House, Enugu on Monday.