• Boarding house is a choice, says govt
• Youth group accuses Sanwo-Olu of commercialising education
Parents and guardians of students of Lagos Model Colleges have kicked against the almost 300 per cent hike in boarding fees by the state government, describing the increase as highly insensitive and unacceptable.

The state government had announced an upward review of boarding fees for each student across its model colleges from N35,000 to N100,000 per term, effective immediately.

Some of the parents, who marched to the state’s House of Assembly, yesterday, wondering why the government is insensitive considering the current economic realities, maintained that the Lagos State government has no justification for the about 300 per cent increase, especially by the same state government claiming to be running a free education policy.

Besides, the parents claimed that apart from the feeding fees, they also pay other sundry charges, including submission of mandatorily specified sizes of insecticides, detergents, brooms, tissue papers, mop and mop bowls, among others.

They insisted that the state government must reverse to the old fee as they cannot afford the new increase. Chairman of the Parents’ Forum, Dapo Dawodu, who spoke on behalf of the group, described the new fee as outrageous. He said parents at the forum level had in February this year designed a “good scheme of feeding and welfare analysis of their children to the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, which the government has not been able to fault.

MEANWHILE, the state government has said that there is no going back on the fee hike. In a statement posted on its official X handle, the government said that while it had continued to provide free education to pupils in public schools, enrolment of a child into a boarding school is an individual choice, and as such, parents are expected to pay boarding fees at the beginning of every school term.

It noted that the boarding fees are used basically for feeding, janitorial and other cost-related miscellaneous to keep the students in the hostels per term.
The state government said that it would continue to provide free education in its primary, junior and senior secondary schools,.

However, the Youth Rights Campaign (YRC) has condemned the recent hike in feeding fees at Lagos model colleges. In a statement by its National Secretary, Francis Nwapa, the group accused Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of being ‘insensitive’ towards the current economic realities facing Nigerians.