Devon Dick

UTECH's recent announced increase of 20 per cent on tuition fees for the year 2006/2007 has gone too far. A whopping increase of 1/5 on an already significant sum should not be done in such a manner.

The institution should have provided justification displaying financial statements for the last five years. Was this increase due to increased cost of utilities or inflation or mismanagement?

Last Thursday, I expressed shock to a well-known UTech lecturer about this sizeable increase. He justified it by saying he did not know the reason for such an increase, but he trusts the administration. I also spoke to a board member who did not share my outrage.

Any educational institution that needs to increase its fees by 20 per cent in one year, barring some exceptional circumstances beyond their control, is being mismanaged.

An increase of this magnitude can cause untold difficulties for students and their parents. Every year, the Boulevard Baptist Church offers a scholarship to a student at UTech and every year there are at least three other needy and academically gifted children who are interviewed and do not receive a grant. This increase is going to make a bad situation worse.

Need to increase scholarships

It also means that the person who will get the scholarship next month will be 20 per cent worse off than the student who got it last year. In addition, it means that donors need to increase their offerings to scholars by 20 per cent to meet this new academic year, to be giving a purse of equal value that the donors thought was necessary in the first place.

When I was chairman of a certain school board, the management brought an increase to be approved. The board said it was too high and it was made more reasonable. Subsequently, the Ministry of Education made a ruling that high schools cannot just arbitrarily increase these fees. How did this increase slip by the board and Ministry of Education? Do they know something we do not know? Tell the stakeholders.

My belief is that this massive increase is caused from trying to eliminate or reduce the anomalies between the salaries of the academic and administrative staff. However, the students and parents should not suffer for this foul-up. Did the board, Ministries of Education and Finance approve these positions and salaries for the administrative staff?

The students are getting a raw deal. Some years ago the students' results were late and it was as if it was no big deal. And the excuse seemed weak.

There appears to be something fundamentally wrong at UTech.

The Ministry of Education has a slogan that 'every child can learn' but these costs will make it difficult for students to get an education and fulfil their God-given potential.

In March, university students in England were agitating on campuses for 'Free education' at the tertiary level while we here are increasing it by 20 per cent!

UTech has gone too far.

Rev Devon Dick is pastor of Boulevard Baptist Church and author of 'Rebellion to Riot: the Church in Nation Building'.