KEY POINTS
- Parents speaks against N100,000 new boarding school feeding fees up from N35,000; an increase of 186%.
- The Parents’ Forum deems the hike as mindless provocative incitement hence there should be a reversal.
- Students organise boycotts and parents warn they will not let their children go to school until the new fees have been lowered.
This is not the first time the parents of boarding students of Eva Adelaja Girls Grammar School, Bariga Lagos State are protesting, the last time it was tuition fees and now it is the feeding fees which has been increased by the Lagos State Government.
From N35, 000 to N100, 000, the increment translated to 186 % which most parents claim they cannot afford. This protest which started on Sunday saw many parents taking to the school area with a batch of protesters chanting all sorts of slogans and demanding the school authority to revert their decision on fee increment.
One parent, speaking on behalf of the group, expressed frustration: “We can’t afford this money; it’s too much. Our children want to go to school. ”
The parents under the parents’ forum have conditioned that they would not be taking their children for the new academic calendar year as they are insisting on the reduction of the fee they are being charged.
Parents forum urges a reversal of the fee hike
The Chairman, Parents’ Forum of Lagos Model Colleges, Surveyor Dapo Dawodu said the increase in the fees was mindless and provocative while the Lagos State Ministry of Education was greedy. Dawodu went on to say that this means the school’s principal will be given N100 million to take care of feeding students for three months, up from the N35 million given earlier.
The Parents’ Forum in February 2024 submitted to the Ministry of Education a Feeding & Welfare Analysis scheme which according to them has never been disputed. The group said that, while the Lagos State free education should include the boarding programmes, this is especially relevant in the present economic hardships.
Acording to The Punch, Dawodu and other protesting parents said they will not take their children to school until the decision is fully and completely reversed. They described the hike as an obnoxious decision which has imposed thebette burden on parents and let there be no doubt that they shall remain uncompromising in their call for action from the state government.
