Students boycott exams at Anambra poly over ‘N5k fee’

Students of the Federal Polytechnic Oko in Anambra boycotted exams to protest an alleged unexpected fee imposed on them.

The students, on Wednesday, opposed what they described as the school’s “constant imposition of exam fees and other levies”.

The undergraduates numbering up to 1,000 from different departments held up placards and sang in protest.

They cordoned off the school’s main gate, administrative building, departments, permanent site, and the popular school tower.

Their placards had such inscriptions as “reduce the cost of textbooks”, “allow us to do our medical and data capture”, “say no to corrupt stakeholders”, “say no to exam fees”, and “break down our tuition fees”, among others.

Chukwuebuka Umezula, the vice president of the National Association of Polytechnic Students in the south-east, said the management released a memo on April 9 informing “students to pay an exam fee of N5,000 on or before their exercise began on April 12”.

He questioned the rationale behind the additional exam fee after students had paid their fees for the session.

He also said the memo came on short notice and fell on a public holiday.

Umezula said the students will continue the protest and boycott all exams in the school until the management rescinds its decision.

He said they had laboured to pay tuition, medical, and ICT fees and expressed shock over the new examination fee.

He said the National Association of Polytechnic Students had written the school management over the memo but it fell on deaf ears.

Also speaking, Cynthia Felix, the secretary general of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) south-east zone, said the association is working to ensure the students are not fleeced in any way.

She said the exam fee was unlawful, demanding the immediate withdrawal of the memo that introduced the fee.

The secretary-general said all students should be allowed to sit their examinations.