When the news for the increment of tuition fees made headlines on Danfodiyo press outlets, it almost drew out the intestine of students of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, from their anuses.
The thought of dropping out from the school remained an ugly incubus for many of the poor students who chose the federal university because of its affordability.
Though the management could not be blamed for the sudden hike in the tuition fees, it should pull out of the fire for the children of the masses and also avoid contributing to the annual dropout rate in Nigerian tertiary institutions which is already pegged at
18% due to financial reasons.
There is no doubt that an astronomical number of Danfodites are passing through fire, following the realization that this time around their dear Danfodiyo varsity really means a deal, directing the returning students who defaulted the 2022/2023 registration exercise to defer the academic session.
Yes. The management has been considerate enough by extending the registration exercise for three times, with the latest coming from Friday, 9th June to Friday, 16th June 2023.
But the final closure of the portal on Saturday, 17th June still came at the wrong time, particularly for those students who were only left with course registration.
Berating on the paucity of number of students who could not pay their school fees, the Director of Management of Information Systems(MIS), Mallam Ahmed Isah Chafe said on Saturday that it’s “quite worrisome that up to 6,000 students (both returning and fresh) failed to generate invoices for payments.”
“Generating an invoice, as we all know, is the first step towards making payments. Whether you are paying personally or through scholarship does not change and/or costs anything to generate one.”
This clearly shows that a whopping number of students would defer this academic session and the reason for the default is totally not unconnected with the grave hike in the tuition fees.
It’s no longer a breaking news that the management has hiked the fees for about 50% this academic session. For instance, a 300-level law student paid N48,500 in the last academic session, but now the fees have skyrocketed up to N73,550.
In a country where over about 84 million people are wrangling in extreme poverty, surviving below $1.9 per day while 133 million (63 percent of the country’s population) are multidimensionally poor; there is need for the management of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto to give more time to allow the students to pay their school fees.
Also, while speaking with the majority of the defaulters of the payment, the obvious points to the possibility that they are awaiting for the end of the month of June to iron out their registration.
Yes! Not everyone is a salary earner but the man who is owing Iya Akara promised to pay back after receiving his salary for the month of June.
Meanwhile, for those who defaulted in course registration, it’s a game in which the school management has also committed a howler that led to some of the students to now be at the losing team.
Recall that the News Digest Press reported how despite the registration for the 2022/2023 academic session being on the verge of closing, some students still had over four results that were yet to be released then.
And in an interview with the News Digest Press, the General Examinations officer, Dr T.Y Baba said the students should calm down, adding that the situation does not cause an alarm
“There should be no cause for alarm amongst the students as the institution isn’t always in a rush to release results,”he said.
“There is no need for anxiety concerning the result. The students shouldn’t be scared, they should have confidence in what they wrote down and most important of all, pray for the best results.”
Though most of the results were released, the process hindered some of the affected students from carrying out the course registration exercise swiftly.
Also, issues related to grades and some courses appearing in the students’ portal wrongly have contributed to the defaultment.
For instance, a 300-level student of the Faculty of Education and Extension Services who pleaded anonymous, told the News Digest Press that he had a missing grade in his 200-level second semester result which up till now has yet to be rectified, despite lodging several complaints to the faculty examination officers.
“I was unable to register for my course registration because I have a missing grade in my result and it was yet to be rectified despite I reporting to the faculty examination officers and the lecturer taking the course,” he said.
“We only have the privilege once in a week to complain and if they can’t attend to us that day, we are going to wait till the following week.”
We appeal to the school management to be more considerate again by opening the portal to allow the students complete all the registration exercises.