There is no end in sight to the impasse between the Students Union Government (SUG) of Osun State College of Education, Ila-Orangun, and management of the institution over the recent increase of fees by the institution.

Many students have opted not to pay the fees following directives by the SUG that no student of the school should pay the new school fees until the SUG led by Comrade Olaoluwa Omidire concludes negotiation with Osun State government authority over the matter.

But the negotiation did not yield much as the state government through Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Jelili Adesiyan, directed that the fees be reduced by N2,000 for National Certificate Education (NCE) students and N3,000 for their degree counterparts. Even with the reduction, the students have found it difficult to pay the fees as they claim it was still too high, and this is hampering registration for the new session.

Findings revealed that only 30 per cent of the students both for degree and NCE have registered for the 2007/2008 sessions.

This slow pace of registration has created some hitches in some of the college's programmes for the new session. Some of the students have, however, appealed to Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola to come to their aid by reducing the fees.

It would be recalled that there was over 200 per cent increase in fees in the institution, which almost led to a showdown between the management and students.

The SUG of the institution had ordered the students not to pay the fees.

A statement issued by the SUG said the management of the institution went ahead to increase the fees without input from the students.

"This is to inform the entire the students of the college that the SUG knows nothing about the recent increment in school fees. The SUG has swung into action on this issue and we are not instructing any student to pay any kobo for now. We promise to agitate for reduction of this exorbitant amount and all we need from you is your co-operation," the statement said.

According to the new fees regime, the former fees that was between N6,500 and N14,000 depending on the programme, was jerked up to between N16,000 and N25,000 depending on the programme.

The students viewed the fees as outrageous and called on the state government and management of the school to step in so that students would not feel the effect too much.

In another development, the SUG has vowed to lift the ban on the forthcoming students' election if the school authority failed to do so this month. But it may no longer have reason to take such action as management of the school has lifted the ban on elections and other activities. The current students' leaders have spent more than their normal time in office as various alleged management-induced problems had not allowed them to conduct elections as at when due. The students want the elections to be held for various offices so as to give them the opportunity to usher new students' leaders, according to democratic ideals.