By Dayo Adesulu

The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) has condemned the Anambra state government and the university management of Anambra State University (ANSA) for increasing the school fees from N36,000 to N86,000 for non-medical students, N120,000 for medical students saying that ERC sees the increment as unjustifiable and anti-people.

Reacting in a press statement, the National Coordinator, Hassan Soweto said that there is no reason to increase fees in a country wherein many workers/parents earn poverty wages and many are losing jobs by the day.

He noted that what we should be working towards across the federation is to expand and upgrade the current state of facilities in schools and also build new schools with basic facilities and well trained workers to guarantee meaningful learning adding that at present less than 10 percent of applicants get admission to the universities as a result of limited facilities.

He however lamented that those who got admitted might lose their studentship because they cannot afford the new fee hike regime. “We say no to hike in fees as we do not need a soothsayer to tell us that some students will be forced to withdraw from school should the new fee regime is left to remain,” he said.

Soweto showered praises on the students for conducting a peaceful protest on Thursday April 14 2011 against the hike in Anambra State despite police provocation and harassment reiterating that it has proved that students can organize peaceful resistance and protest.

He therefore called on the students to continue on the struggle and deepen it by reaching out to lecturers, non-academic staff, parents, trade unions etc., to support their struggle to defeat the obnoxious fee. “We encourage the students to organize more peaceful protests, demonstrations, lecture boycotts, and other means available to draw attention to their plights,” he said.

According to Soweto, the spate of increment in school fees like other anti-people policies goes to show that the ruling class lacks the ability to move the economy forward maintaining that the speed at which those in the position of authority increase their salaries, allowances and use other means to shortchange the system only points to the fact that the living conditions of the working people will be under constant attacks.

Proferring solution to it, Soweto called on the Anambra state government to increase the allocation to the institution to the level that it will not only make it possible to revert the school fees to N36000 but also to that level wherein school fees would be abrogated soon.

He urged the local unit of the Academic Staff Union of the University led by Mr. Jaja Nwachukwu to come out from its ambivalent position to fully support the struggle of the students to defeat the hike insisting that it was not the struggle of university workers alone that won wage increment for the lecturers but for the support other strata of the society gave to the struggle.

His words: ERC, many of whom were students across the federation fully supported ASUU’s demand for wage increment and proper funding of education through several mass protests. And the relation between the lecturers and students should be seen as parents and wards both of whom are exploited by the ruling capitalist class.

The obvious truth is that students and their parents are forced to pay for the wage increment the Anambra state government like other governments has conceded to lecturers. We also appeal to lecturers being used by the management to enforce this increment by way of denying students who have not paid the new fees the right to sit for tests to desist from it and consequently give support to students.

We challenge the state government led by Peter Obi to open the financial books of Anambra state for public scrutiny. This will enable the public to know how the funds are being utilized.

This is because we are sure that the problem is not so much of inadequate funds but the way and manner the funds are being utilized which in most cases are not only wasted but also looted. However, we are demanding that elected representatives of students and education workers should be part of a committee that should democratically run the education sector and all tertiary institutions in the state.

ERC hereby reiterate our demand for governments at all levels to fund education adequately such that at least 26% of the budget should be allocated to education; and the salaries and allowances of political office holders should be reduced to the average emolument of a skilled worker while the remaining should be ploughed back to education and other sectors.