It has now been weeks since some Rivers State University (RSU) students protested the school’s decision to embark on their “No Tuition, No Exam” campaign policy.
The Tide correspondent found that the protest had positive responses from two local government area chairmen and well-meaning people who came to the aid of some students, while some are still unable to pay. .
The Tide correspondent also learned that students who are unable to pay their tuition fees are still not allowed to participate in the current exams.
The source further revealed that although they may be allowed to write whenever they pay their fees, but the source was not entirely sure how the school management intended achieve this since the students did not pay the fees at the same time.
It should be noted that the end of year exam started on Monday, October 24, 2022 and is still ongoing till date, students who were unable to pay their tuition fees have been requested to leave the examination rooms.
As many as 8,000 senior students at Rivers State University protested the school’s ‘no tuition, no exam’ policy, but it all fell on the ears of a deaf from the school administration.
The students were seen on Tuesday, October 25, 2022, carrying signs and demonstrating along the highway, while calling on the state government to persuade school officials to reverse the draconian policy.
One of the protesting students who spoke to The Tide Correspondent, Ihunwo Christian, said: ‘My mother is a pensioner and the Rivers State government has failed to pay gratuities and pension arrears for pensioners, which was very difficult with us. My father is dead and no one to help me except my mother.
“I was wondering why a state university would send indigent students out of state out of the exam halls just because they can’t afford tuition now, but they would have kept our scores and certificates at the place and would not have refused us to take the exam at the same time with our other colleagues,” he added.
The fate of some of these students has been taken care of by well-meaning people as well as two of their local government chairmen, but we hope that the final decision of the RSU management at the end will be favorable to all.
By: Susan Serekara-Nwikhana
