Yinka ADETUNJI
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Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), College of Agriculture and Renewable Natural Resources, Iseyin campus, erupted in protest Monday as students in the four hundred level stormed the street to express their grievances against non-availability of facilities for practicals, which is a vital aspect of their study.
“Yes, we staged a peaceful protest today, Monday, January 20,” a 400 level student of the campus, who said he participated in the protest but preferred anonymity told ogbomosoinsightonline.com on phone. “It has become unbearable. We are already in the 400 level when we are to be exposed to practicals in various fields; livestock production especially, but the campus lacks all these facilities. No poultry farm, no piggery farm, no sheep and goat, we have no farms and other resources which are inevitable for our studies, whereas all these things are in the main campus in Ogbomoso, lying fallow. It doesn’t add up, it does not make sense at all. How can we call ourselves agric graduates when we have not undergone practical aspects germane to our studies?”
Related Protest:
LAUTECH Iseyin campus: ‘They have destroyed that faculty,’ lamented stakeholders
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findings also revealed that the students are “exasperated by high costs of accommodation and transport. The campus is far from the main town and to transport ourselves there is expensive; houses are not in the area and the ones in town are on the high side in terms of prices. Added to that is that our lecturers are not always on the ground to teach us, it is not easy for them to shuttling between Ogbomoso and Iseyin.”
“They have truncated our studies. We fought against the relocation when it was mooted but the government and the management insisted we move. These are the concerns we raised but no one listened to us. We now face the prospect of being called half-baked graduates, when we have facilities wasting away somewhere. It doesn’t stand reason.”
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Recall in 2023, the then 200 level students were relocated from the main campus in Ogbomoso to the newly built campus in Iseyin. Since then, new students were admitted at this new campus and the pioneer students are now in 400 level, having a year left to graduate. The move was resisted by the lecturers, the affected students and the people of Ogbomoso with many calling on the government to rather begin new programmes at Iseyin among other suggestions but the Governor Seyi Makinde-led government was adamant insisting the students move. “Now it has boomeranged, the carrying capacity of the available facilities is not commensurate with the students’ population and the required resources of the courses of studies of the students,” a lecturer who confirmed the protest also told ogbomosoinsightonline.com.
