Students of the University of Jos, Plateau State, on Tuesday, blocked roads leading to the campus in protest, following an increase in school fees and other services rendered by the institution
The student protesters who were mobilized by leaders of the Students Union Government (SUG) of the institution called for an urgent reversal of the hike in school fees and other services rendered by the University.
Armed with placards with different inscriptions such as “If your children can afford the money, we can’t”, and “We don’t want to drop out of school”, among others.
The varsity’s school fees and other charges were hiked from N40,000 to N160,00 per academic session.
The students said Nigerians were already going through a lot of hardship, hence the need for the authorities not to complicate the already bad situation with further fee increments.
“As a union, we have been having serious engagements with the university authorities before it was not brought to N110,000,” the school’s SUG president Longmun Dakon told Channels Television.
He said the hike in fees is “unaffordable to students. It is on the high side and of course, a lot of students would drop out of school”.
Amid the protest, the school’s Dean of Students Affairs Prof Christopher Piwuna assured the students that the fee hike is of concern to the authorities and is receiving their attention.
“Our engagements have not yielded the results that you want. That is clear. But for us, we believe that discussions will always continue,” he added.