Boarding Fee Hike: Parents vow to disrupt school resumption in Lagos

Resumption of staff and students for the 2024/2025 academic session at the Lagos State-owned model colleges may be disrupted by protesting parents over the more than 180 per cent increment in the schools’ boarding fees.

In videos obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, protesting parents on Sunday stormed Eva Adelaja Girls Secondary School, Bariga, one of the more than 10 model colleges with boarding systems in the state, and demanded reversal of the decision by the state government.

The protesters chanted solidarity songs and carried placards with inscriptions such as “We Say No to this increment,” and “No reversal, No resumption”.

Parents carrying placards,!protesting fee hike for Lagos Bording School

Students are supposed to resume for another session on Sunday (today) but the protesting parents have threatened there would be no resumption until the government reverses the fee hike.

Fee increment

The Lagos State Government had announced the increment in a memo addressed to the school principles by the state’s education ministry.

According to the memo which was signed by the Director of Basic Education Services, Olufemi Asaolu, announced the increment from N35,000 to N100,000.

The memo noted that the directive followed the approval by the state government.

“I have the directive of the Honourable Commissioner to inform all public boarding house schools in Lagos State that the state government has approved the review of the boarding fee payable in all public boarding house schools in Lagos State,” part of the letter reads.

Parents carrying placards,!protesting fee hike for Lagos Bording School

Parents carrying placards,!protesting fee hike for Lagos Bording School

‘Increment sudden, arbitrary’

One of the protesting parents who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES on the phone on Sunday, Segun Bashorun, described the increments as arbitrary and sudden.

He noted that the parents only received the notification for the increments around 6 p.m. on Friday, less than two days to resumption.

“It is evil. It is wickedness in the highest order,” he said, explaining that the officials of the school including the principals have been largely unreachable since the notice.

Mr Bashorun said the parents were not carried along in the decision process of increasing the fee.

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He added that interactions have been restricted on the WhatsApp platforms for the parents as soon as the notice was posted.

“They normally give us information and we also respond. But unfortunately when we got that increment, they just closed all the platforms that only admins could talk on the platforms,” he said.

“Even if they want to increase, nobody will go and increase a fee like that without inviting the parents to be part of the decision-making processes. They should involve us in what they want to do. But unfortunately, they didn’t do that.”