March 19th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) is working to solve the issue of university tuition fee hike announced by the Juba and Upper Nile Universities last week and that caused demonstrations by students in the capital Juba last week.
Earlier this month, the administration of the 5 public universities sent out a circular, informing the students of an increase in the amount they should pay for studies. As results, students at the university of Juba staged a peaceful demonstration against the new tuition fee hikes which requires the students to pay between 50,000 and 86,000 South Sudanese pounds a year.
According to a lawmaker quoted by the Eye Radio, the Specialized Standing Committee on Education at the Transitional National Legislative Assembly summoned the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Yen Lam Oral, and Professor John Akech, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Juba to explain the rationale behind the increase.
“We sat as a committee and we decided to summon the Minister so that we hear from him. And the next step, we will also summon the Vice Chancellor,” the Chairperson of the parliamentary committee, Hon. Ahmed Mohamed Musa, said.
“But we are hearing that Upper Nile University also made its new tuition fee structure. So we shall also call the Vice Chancellor of the Upper Nile University,” he added.
He further promised the students to wait and said the parliament is going to solve the issue as soon as possible and that it will not accept negative thing against the students.
“We will not come with something that will harm you, we are working that you should be offered quality education, and the money taken from you will be fare,” he added.
