Laravel Validation returns blank page on failure

I have a project where several validations are working perfectly. However I added a new controller recently and noticed a break for a route. It seems that if the previous page was a POST request, 302 does not redirect to the page with its blade view but rather redirects to the page but left blank. To illustrate, see the below sequence of logic:

    public function pickstudent(Request $request){
  $term = $request->term;
  $session = $request->session;
  $stclass = $request->stclass;
  $classname = Stclass::where('id', $stclass)->first()->name;
  $students = Student::where('studentClassId', $stclass)->get(); 
  return view('admin.fees.pickstudent', compact('students', 'stclass', 'term', 'session', 'classname'));
}

admin/fees/pickstudent has a form that gets submitted to :

            public function entertransaction(Request $request){

  $term = $request->term;
  $session = $request->session;
  $banks = Bank::all();
  $stclass_id = $request->stclass;
  $student_id = $request->student_id;
  $studentname = Student::find($student_id)->surname.' '.Student::find($student_id)->firstName.' '.Student::find($student_id)->otherName;
  $students = Student::where('studentClassId', $stclass_id)->get();
  $paid = Transaction::where('student_id', $student_id)->pluck('fee_id');
  $fees= Fee::where('term', $term)->where('session', $session)->where('stclass_id', $stclass_id)->whereNotIn('id', $paid)->get();
  $officers = Role::find(4)->users()->get();

  // if($fees->isEmpty()){
  //   return back()->with('success', 'Nothing owed');
  // }

  // else{
  return view('admin.fees.entertransaction', compact('students', 'fees', 'student_id', 'studentname', 'term', 'session', 'stclass_id','banks','officers'));
}

admin/fees/entertransaction has another form that's submitted to:

    public function submitpayment(Request $request){


    $validator = Validator::make($request->all(), [
        'fees' => 'required',
        'paymentcode' => 'required',
    ]);

    if ($validator->fails()) {
        return redirect('admin/fees/pretransaction')
                    ->withErrors($validator)
                    ->withInput();
    }

    //     request()->validate([
    //      'paymentdate' => 'required',
    //     'paymentcode' => 'required|unique:transactions',
    //     'channel' => 'required',
    //     'fees' => 'required',
    //     'officer' => 'required',
    //     'bank' => 'required',
    

    // ], [
        
    //     'fees' => 'Name must be at least 2 char.',
    //     'officer' => 'Name should not be greater than 100 characters.',
    //     'paymentcode.unique' => 'A student with that Registration/Admission Number already Exists.',
    //     'bank' => 'Please check your mobile Number entry. Those are not numbers.',

    // ]);

    //   $this->validate($request, [
    //     'paymentdate' => 'required',
    //     'paymentcode' => 'required|unique:transactions',
    //     'channel' => 'required',
    //     'fees' => 'required',
    //     'officer' => 'required',
    //     'bank' => 'required',
      

    // ]);

I left the commented code so you see I have tried all validation methods I know. When validation fails, rather than return the errors to ../../entertransactions, it returns a blank .../.../entertransactions. Below is my entertransactions view:

                @extends('layouts.admin')

@section('content')

@if (count($errors) > 0)

      <ul>
          @foreach ($errors->all() as $error)
          <li>{{ $error }}</li>
          @endforeach
      </ul>
  </div>

@endif

@if ($message = Session::get('success'))
      <div class="alert alert-success">
          <p>{{ $message }}</p>
      </div>
@endif

  @if ($message = Session::get('failure'))
      <div class="alert alert-danger">
          <p>{{ $message }}</p>
      </div>
@endif

Enter Transaction

{{$studentname}} @csrf

        <thead>
            <th>Fee</th>
            <th>Amount</th>
            <th><input type="checkbox" id="feeall">Select All</th>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
    
            @foreach($fees as $fee)
            <tr>
                <td>{{$fee->name}}</td>
                <td>{{$fee->amount}}</td>
                <td><input type="checkbox" value="{{$fee->id}}" class="fees" name="fees[]" id="fees[]"></td>
            </tr>
            @endforeach
      
      
  
        </tbody>
    </table>
  <hr>
  <div class="form-group">
  <label for="channel">Payment Channel</label>
  
  <select name="channel" id="channel" class="form-control">
    <option selected="true" disabled="true">Select Payment Channel</option>
    <option value="transfer">Mobile/Internet Transfer</option>
    <option value="teller">Bank Deposit</option>
  </select>
                     
</div>



<div class="form-group">
  <label for="Class">Bank Name:</label>
 <select class="form-control" name="bank" id="bank">
  <option selected="true" disabled="true">Select Bank</option>
  @foreach($banks as $bank )
  <option value="{{ $bank->name }}">{{ $bank->name }}</option>
  @endforeach
 </select>
</div>  

   <div class="form-group">
  <label for="paymentdate">Payment Date</label>
  <input type="date" name="paymentdate" id="paymentdate" class="form-control">
</div>
  <div class="form-group">
  <label for="paymentcode">Transaction Reference(e.g Teller Number, Transfer code)</label>
  <input type="text" name="paymentcode" id="paymentcode" class="form-control">
</div>
<div class="form-group">
  <label for="payevidence">Upload Payment Evidence [Optional]</label>
  <input type="file" class="form-control-file" name="payevidence" id="payevidence">
</div>

   <div class="form-group">
  <label for="Class">Account Officer</label>
 <select class="form-control" name="officer" id="officer">
  <option selected="true" disabled="true">Select Account Officer</option>
  @foreach($officers as $officer )
  <option value="{{ $officer->id }}">{{ $officer->fullName }}</option>
  @endforeach
 </select>
</div>  
  <input type="hidden" name="student_id" value="{{$student_id}}">
   <input type="hidden" name="stclass_id" value="{{$stclass_id}}">
  <input type="hidden" name="term" value="{{$term}}">
  <input type="hidden" name="session" value="{{$session}}">
    <button type="submit" class="btn btn-success">Submit Payment</button>
</form>
</div>

$("#feeall").click(function (){ if ($("#feeall").is(':checked')){ $(".fees").each(function (){ $(this).prop("checked", true); }); }else{ $(".fees").each(function (){ $(this).prop("checked", false); }); } });

 $("#sessionall").click(function (){
 if ($("#sessionall").is(':checked')){
    $(".sessions").each(function (){
       $(this).prop("checked", true);
       });
    }else{
       $(".sessions").each(function (){
            $(this).prop("checked", false);
       });
    }

});

@stop