Abia State House of Assembly said it has waded into the issue of exorbitant school fees charged at Government College, Umuahia, which has caused disenchantment in some quarters.
The House of Assembly’s action followed a petition written to it by an old boy of the school, Chukwudi Onwudinanti.
The Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon. Austin Okezie Meregini, who disclosed this to newsmen in Umuahia, said the petition had already passed first reading on the floor of the House.
He promised that the House would stop at nothing in ensuring that the vision of the founding fathers of the school was not truncated by the introduction of excessive school fees that will make Government College, Umuahia, out of the reach of the poor.
He said as an old boy himself, he and many others wouldn’t have attended the school if the school fee was so outrageous.
In the petition addressed to the Speaker of the House, through the House Committee Chairman, Public Petitions Committee, by Onwudinanti’s counsel, Ugochukwu Zik, the petitioner, from Emede Ibeku where the school is located, narrated how the present managers of the school have deviated from its set goals.
Onwudinanti, an ex-student of GCU and member of the Registered Trustees of Government College Umuahia Old Boys Association (GCUOBA), stated in the petition that sometime around 21st July 2014, the Abia State Government entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with GCUOBA to create a trust over GCU and to appoint GCUOBA as ‘trustee’ to the trust.
He said with this, GCUOBA was to take over the ownership of GCU as ‘trustee’ under a trust.
According to him, the GCUOBA in turn incorporated a trust known as Fisher Education Development Trust (FEDT) in order to segregate GCUOBA’s sundry activities as an old boys’ association from its duties as trustee of the education trust.
However, Onwudinanti regretted that a few years after the successful takeover of the school by the old boys, some of the old boys entrusted with the running of the school have deviated from her set goals by introducing outrageous school fees that are out of the reach of the poor.
He said the education offered by GCU presently has become inaccessible for the majority of the people, contrary to the original ideas of GCU, which was to provide a level playing ground to acquire quality education for all bright students, irrespective of economic and social status.
“As we speak, GCU’s annual school fee is above ₦1m. The current controllers of the school have shut out brilliant children within Ibeku and Umuahia East State Constituency from quality education.
“What is more disheartening is that folks who have set up this new socio-economically ex-communicating structure would not have been able to attend GCU in their days based on the respective economic status of their families at the time, if the original owners of the school had set up the present bourgeois system as is presently constituted.”
He implored the House of Assembly to invoke and exercise its oversight functions over the activities happening in GCU and ensure the right thing was done.
The Chairman of the governing body of the school could not be reached for comments; however, a member who wouldn’t allow his name in print because he was not authorised to speak to the press on the matter said whatever decision they took was in the best interest of the school.
