(MENAFN- The Post) EDUCATION Ministry is yet to solve problems of the Lesotho College of Education (LCE), two weeks after they went on strike. The ministry told thepost that“talks are at an advanced stage with stakeholders”. The Education Ministry's spokesperson, Mary Mokemane, said the students should“expect the college to reopen soon”. The students protested after the college management hiked tuition fees by 45 percent, from M11 000 to M16 000 per semester abruptly and without prior notification. The students, nearly all of them sponsored by the National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS), claim that they have no other means of financial support. The Student Representative Council (SRC) president, Mike Ralethoko, told thepost that what irked the students was when the college management said they would not get their exam results until they paid full fees. At first, Ralethoko said, the students thought the NMDS was aware of the fees hike only discovering when they enquired that the college had not communicated with it. When the students went on strike and started chanting protest songs at the college premises, the management called the police and they were kicked out of the campus. The school has not opened its gate for them ever since.“I have never seen any school increasing fees with such a huge percentage,” Ralethoko said. “In our contracts with the NMDS, our fees are M11 000 per semester,” he said. He said the school should have engaged the NMDS about the changes because it is the one paying fees.“We are told we must pay from our pockets.” Ralethoko said they held several meetings with the school to suspend the new fees and implement them later as the NMDS cannot pay any further monies not in its contracts with students. He said their strike was not violent“but we were pushed out of the premises in the presence of heavily armed police”.“We were afraid that we would be beaten and we simply left.” Ralethoko said no one wanted to compromise for the sake of the students' future during the meetings.“The school does not want to back down and the NMDS does not want to intervene.” He complained that this is the second week of their strike and closure of the college“but no one seems to understand our situation”. “No one cares about helping us now,” he said to get comments from the LCE management were not successful. Nkheli Liphoto
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