By Callistus Agwaza in Jalingo
The Acting Rector of Taraba State Polytechnic, Suntai, Dr Agbu Danlami has warned that the institution has zero torerance for extortion of students.
Speaking in an interview with journalists at the Jalingo campus of the institution on Monday, Danlami said no student should be extorted under the guise of payments for handouts.
He said the school has a policy against sale of handouts and other forms of extortions of students.
The acting rector said the management of the school has keyed into Governor Agbu Kefas’ vision and policy on ensuring that the burden of education is taken away from the parents so that children will have no reason to be on the streets.
He,however,urged the governor to come to the aid of the institution, especially, in the area of providing solar power, drainages, and a big hall for hosting conferences.
“I want to assure you that we are in full compliance with the governor’s policy on free education.
“As we speak, the tuition has been reduced by 50 per cent and we have a policy of non sales of handouts. “We have also blocked all sorts of extortions of students under any guise.
“We have also sensitized the students to report any attempt by any lecturer to extort money from them.
“The good thing is that my lecturers are also very disciplined and have personally keyed into the project and we are sure we would not have any issues”, Danlami said.
According to him, efforts were being made to positioned the school in the league of top polytechnics in the country, in terms of quality of our academic programmes.
He called on the state government to beam its developmental light on the infrastructure of the school.
“We are all aware of the flood alerts by NIMET. As we speak, we don’t have drainages in the school making it susceptible flooding in the event of a downpour.
“Another area of challenge is the streets in the school which are in very bad state and the school is engulfed in darkness at night because we don’t have solar powered streetlights on campus and that has been a major security concern to us.
“We have some land across the stream that has not been fenced and the locals are seriously encroaching on the land.
“Apart from lack of perimeter fence, we also need to link the land to the main campus.
“So we need a small bridge across the stream so that we can start developing the place.
“These are some of the areas that we need the State Governor, who has shown overwhelming passion for education to intervene,” Danlamin said.
