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Students of the school of Health Technology Calabar, in their final year are preparing for their national examination and have each been asked to pay the following:
1. National Examiners comfort levy – 50K.
2. Gift for lecturers – 25K.
3. Lecturers comfort – 15K.
4. Departmental fee every semester – 4k
5. National exams fee – 75k.
6. Five pages handout N2500 (that makes up the student’s assessment).
7. Class levy – 3k and students are issued a receipt of 2k, after paying to the assistant class rep who is collecting the money on behalf of the HOD, Community Health. In all these fraudulent levies, school fees is not even included yet.
They also have their final year Urban and Rural practicals. In November 2023, they all paid N10k each, for the urban practicals which lasted for two months. Now in May 2024, they are again asked to pay another N10k for Rural Practicals which will last for three months. This illegal fee according to some management staff, is for the one time transportation of the students, in school arranged buses, up to Ugep in Yakurr LGA in central Cross River and every student will find their way from there to their place of assignment.
Now, there are a total of 231 final year students.
JCHEW 100lvl-50
CHEW 100lvl-75
CHEW ND2 -106
All put together – 231
10k multiplied by 231 students is N2,310,000. Yet the bus will drop them once in Ugep and their 10k is gone.
What does management mean by examiner’s comfort levy of 50k? The explanation I got from a management staff is that, some invigilators will be sent to the State who will stay in hotels for at least one week and they need money for their comfort. They want to fund sleaze. So that sub-head simply means corruption.
What is gift for lecturers? What do they mean by lecturer’s comfort? The school doesn’t have students union, so what do they mean by departmental fees? The sale of handouts in the school is illegal, yet they are collecting N2,500. Class levy of N3k for which a receipt of 2k is issued, is for what? A management staff claims they use it to maintain electric fans and sockets. But they are actually collecting the money for the HOD and some other management staff. In any case, is it the students that are supposed to pay for maintenance of electrical appliances?
And this is only for the final year o. I will bring you the fraudulent figures for other classes soon.
Now tell me how this is not a criminal enterprise and management?
My dear late friend who died a few months ago, Professor Thomas Agan, a former CMD of the Unical Teaching Hospital, while having a bottle of wine together at Jorany Hotel in Calabar, jokingly told me that: “Agba, the way the medical schools are now collecting bribes to pass students, very soon, we will have medical professionals who do not know the difference between panadol and paracetamol. They are churning out butchers now.”
Whoever is supervising the school of health technology in Calabar must wake up now and do the needful and very urgently too.
Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.
Disclaimer: The opinion expressed in this article is strictly that of the author, Agba Jalingo, and does not represent TheLumineNews, its agent or the organization the author works for
