The Oyo State government has
promised to review tuition fees at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology
(LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, in a bid to make it self-sustaining.
Gov. Abiola Ajimobi, announced
this yesterday in Ibadan, while featuring on a programme tagged “Saturday
Special’ aired on the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS).
According to the News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN), LAUTECH which is co-owned by both Oyo and Osun state governments,
had in recent times been enmeshed in crisis over the default of the owners to
pay subvention and staff salaries.
Ajimobi said his administration
had since assumption of office in 2011, paid N22 billion to the institution.
He described the amount being
paid as tuition fees in LAUTECH as `abysmal,’ adding that it would be reviewed
for the institution to be self-sustaining.
“The default in the payment of
subvention and salaries was as a result of economic downturn. When we came on
board, we reduced the tuition fees to N65, 000.
“There are secondary schools that
charges from N150,000 to N200,000, while some universities charge from N500,000
to two million naira.
“Till date, we have subsidised
LAUTECH heavily and we are still giving them. Imagine, the institution has 99
accounts and some could not be traced,” he said.
The governor said that government
had taken steps to resolve the crisis in the university, among which was the
auditing of its account to determine its viability to be self-sustaining like
other institutions.
He said that staff of the
institution had initially refused the auditing firm access but had promised to
allow them recently.
Ajimobi said that government had
constituted the institution’s governing council which was expected to submit
its report after the current holiday.
He promised that the crisis in
the university would soon be over and the institution would be given take-off
grant for three months.
Commenting on Oyo State Technical
University, Ajimobi said that the institution, which would take-off in October,
was a specialized institution, adding it was not a university for all.
He said that his administration
had evolved several initiatives to reform education in the state, particularly
public schools.
He added that the efforts had
started to yield the desired fruits.
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