RFA Commits To Excellence, Denies Use Of Force On Protesters

The Royal Family Academy (RFA) Abuja has reiterated its commitment to upholding its core values of excellence, hard work, integrity, innovation, and discipline.

The school, in a statement, said it will continually make and evaluate its policies in order to stay afloat even in the midst of the glaringly harsh economic realities.

While faulting reports about a protest in the school, it noted that there was no police engagement with the aggrieved persons at its premises.

RFA noted that as a private institution, self-sustaining, lacking in any form of external financial aid and/or sponsorship, the decision for a 50% increase to the tuition and ancillary fees was occasioned by recent economic realities which has impacted directly and quite negatively on its overhead and other associated costs of doing business, making it impracticable and impossible for the school to stay afloat.

“In the instant case, the surge in the overhead cost of running the school within the past year has become astronomical, for instance, the school requires 33,000litres of diesel to power the school every 6-8weeks, as at 2021 when the cost of diesel was between N250-N300 per liter, as opposed to the current cost of diesel which is between N950-N1,050 per liter. A simple multiplication for the cost of diesel alone has gone from N8,000,000 in 2021 to N31,000,000 in 2023. This is without factoring in the cost of power from the power grid when it is available, or the cost of maintaining the generators. This is just an instance of one of the costs the school must grapple with given the circumstances,” it said.

It added that the fees hike was immediately communicated to the Parents Teachers Progressive Forum (PTPF) in July at the end of the 2022/23 school session to provide ample time for parents to adjust to paying the new fees or seek alternative and more affordable or pocket friendly schools for their wards.

The school noted that despite engagements with the PTPF, some parents decided to embark on a protest on September 18 while the school was in session.

While noting that in order to ensure the safety of students and pupils on campus, the Police personnel attached to the school were placed on high alert to ensure that the said protest was conducted in a peaceful and orderly manner, especially as there was no member of the leadership of the PTPF on ground to allay fears as to the identity of the very few purported protesters who converged at the gate of its premises.

“Contrary to the falsehood fed to unsuspecting members of the public, it is worthy of mention that on the day of resumption, every parent that showed up to school with a child/ward, regardless of whether or not they had paid the fees for that child was allowed into the premises. Only persons who did not show up with a child/children to drop off were prevented from entering the premises. Around a total of 10 parents were gathered at the school gate, having left their children back at home, insisting on coming into the premises to carry out their protest which would have escalated into a disruption of school activities and potentially putting our pupils and students in harm’s way. Contrary to reports that parents were forcibly removed from the premises, there was no police engagement with these 10 aggrieved persons. Therefore, to suggest that there was a confrontation between the alleged protesters and police personnel attached to the school premises such that parents were forced out of the school premises is completely false, and something that may have happened only in the imagination of these aggrieved parents,” it added

It maintained that matters of fixing tuition and other fees as payable are within the exclusive reserve of the school management, who in doing so, must take into consideration the prevailing economic realities vis-à-vis the excellent standard the school is known for over the years and to ensure that such standards are not compromised.