The Provost of the Plateau State College of Health Technology, Pankshin, Dr. (Prince) Francis Isah Fwangje has debunked the rumour that the College Management staff have increased the tuition fee of returning students and also that of the students to be admitted in the 2023/2024 academic session.
Dr. Francis Fwangje stated this while briefing journalists on the recent familiarisation visit of the Visitation Panel to the college in his office in Pankshin.
He said that there was no point in time that the management staff of the college took such a decision without consultation from stakeholders in the education sector and there is no plan to increase the tuition fee for both the returning and those to be admitted in 2023/2024 academic session or stopping the Student Union Government (SUG) from conducting their elections. Adding that such rumours are perpetrated by misconceived people that do not mean well for the management, staff and students of the institution. There has been no circular in respect to increasing the tuition fee in the college.
He said, he wondered why this would happen at the time when the Visitation Panel to the College are coming on a familiarisation visit and he wanted to believe was a set-up planned by his enemies to tarnish his reputation and that of his management staff before the panel members.
Earlier, the students were on rampage, staging a protest in the college and the protest by the students almost blocked the main gate entrance to the college premises for the Visitation Panel to get assess into the college. If not for the quick intervention of personnel of the Director Security Service (DSS) and the Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) of the College Chapter, Comrade Phili Longben, the situation could have been worse even after the address of the Provost earlier to the aggrieved students on the matter, yet the students failed to give a listening ear to the Provost because the students had been instigated by some staff and not outsiders for reasons best known to them.
When the Dean of Students Affairs, Mr. Simon Gyang was contacted by our reporter to commend on the whole issue, he said that the tenure of the elected Student Union Government (SUG) leaders ended early this year 2023 and because students were writing semester and national examinations, there was no need for conducting fresh elections into the union at that time. After consultation with the management, he was directed to constitute a caretaker committee for the SUG to serve for a period of three months in the first instance. He added that the caretaker committee spent over six months because of the labour strike that took place as of that time but when the strike was suspended by the NLC leaders, academic activities resumed in the college.
The Dean explained the reason behind the Directorate of Students Affairs decision to make a change in the leadership of the union.this came at a heels when the Directorate The Dean, on 3 occasions requested for the financial reports of the union to be submitted to the office of the Dean and on three occasions, the caretaker committee President of the SUG refused to submit the reports and he has not been committed to the students welfare because the monies of union is deposited in his personal bank account. That prompted the Directorate of Students Affairs office to request for the financial report and subsequently, making a change in the union.
Our source also revealed that there were two reasons that provoked the protest by the students. One is that elections should be conducted into the SUG offices and not caretakers committee to be constituted again by the Directorate of Students Affairs. And the already caretaker committee members on ground (SUG) should be immediately reinstated into offices. And two, the increase in tuition fee by the management staff of the college, should be reversed. The source further revealed that the students demanded for the list of the new caretaker committee officials of SUG should be withdrawn immediately and allow the old caretaker committee to continue and also to conduct elections of the Students Union Government (SUG) immediately.
The Provost, Dr. Francis Fwangje however has met with the re-instated caretaker committee officials in his office and the two parties have come to terms that union leaders should submit the fix date for the conduct of the SUG elections to the management for onward consideration and approval by the relevant authority.
He reiterated again that the management has no plan for now to increase tuition fee for both returning and admitted students for the 2023/2024 academic session. Lastly, the Dean of students affairs has officially withdrawn the list of the new caretaker and allowed the old ones to continue and to conduct elections as management staff have nothing to do with the union elections.
And as at the time of filing this report, normalcy had returned to the college. Efforts made to contact the caretaker committee President of the Students Union Government (SUG), Comrade Danjuma Yiltim Shekat to commend on the students protest, proved abortive.
