Kini Nsom
4 July 2008
The Cameroon Students' Rights Association, popularly known by its French acronym as ADDEC, has dragged the Director of the Advanced School of Mass Communications, ASMAC, Prof Laurent Charles Boyomo, to court for what they termed extortion.
The students accused the Director of illegally increasing school fees for students who are doing Masters programmes in that institution.ADDEC filed the case with the Nfoundi High Court in Yaounde on June 26.
According to ADDEC Secretary General, Alain Ngono, increasing school fees for Master's students from FCFA 50,000 to FCFA 500,000 is an illegality that runs counter to presidential decree No. 93/033 of January 19, 1993, putting schools fees for higher education in the country at FCFA 50,000.
Ngono said ADDEC received a letter from ASMAC students last year complaining about the fact that the school authorities increased the tuition fees by 900 percent.Even with the complaints, the ADDEC Scribe remarked, ASMAC authorities went ahead and recently increased the fees from FCFA 500,000 to 600,000.
Following this development, ADDEC wrote to the Director of ASMAC, copying the Rector of the Yaounde University II and the Minister of Higher Education.According to Ngono, no reaction came from that end. ADDEC now claims that Prof. Boyomo simply snubbed them, as students kept on complaining about the heavy financial burden inflicted on them.
He said it was in the wake of such a nonchalant attitude that they decided to sue the Director.Reacting to the case in an interview with CRTV on Monday, Boyomo said it was the Yaounde University II Council that authorised him to increase school fees for the Masters students.
He said it was a measure taken to ensure the success of the professionalisation of the Masters programme.He also said the increase was to enable the school pay visiting lecturers to teach at the school. He claimed that they also needed more money to buy equipment to train students and ensure that they specialise.
Speaking to journalists in Yaounde on July1, ADDEC President, Batogna Gnitechogno, said the explanation given on radio could not convince even a baby. He insisted that a presidential decree is higher than a university council decision.
ADDEC claims that there are neither foreign lecturers nor sophisticated equipment in ASMAC as the Director claims. The ADDEC Secretary General disclosed that the Yaounde Higher School of Engineering, Polytechnic and the Faculty of Medicines and Biomedical Sciences have foreign lecturers and very good equipment but have not increased school fees.
Their students still pay FCFA 50,000 as provided for by the 1993 presidential decree.Two prominent lawyers, Barristers Maurice Ndjodo and Joseph Kenmoe helped the students to file the case in court.
They say they are ready to fight to stop school authorities from extorting money from students.ADDEC officials are asking the court to compel the ASMAC Director to pay back the extra money students paid with damages to the tune of FCFA 13 million.
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