No fee hike under King’s College concession — FG

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The Federal Government has assured that school fees will not increase under the proposed management arrangement for King’s College, Lagos.

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The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, gave the assurance at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday while addressing concerns over the arrangement.

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Alausa said the agreement with the King’s College Old Boys’ Association was designed to mobilise additional resources for the school without transferring its ownership from the government.

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He said the arrangement would be subject to stringent key performance indicators to ensure compliance with agreed standards.

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According to him, the Ministry of Education had established an implementation and monitoring team to conduct unannounced inspections and ensure compliance with the agreement.

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Alausa said the government remained open to dialogue with unions and would consider legitimate concerns that could add value to the arrangement.

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He said decades of accumulated infrastructure decay in Unity Colleges could not be addressed immediately through government funding alone.

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The minister reiterated that there would be no increase in school fees, noting that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) contained provisions to protect the interests of the government and learners.

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He urged journalists to visit the schools and independently assess their condition before reporting on the controversy surrounding the arrangement.

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Also speaking, the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, assured that no teacher would lose their job as a result of the King’s College arrangement.

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Ahmad said affected teachers had been given the option to indicate where they wanted to be redeployed, in line with the Public Service Rules.

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She said the government was implementing teacher capacity-building programmes as part of broader reforms to improve learning outcomes in Unity Colleges and other schools.

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According to her, the government remained open to further engagement with unions on concerns surrounding the arrangement.

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She said legitimate concerns would be considered for possible incorporation into the MoU, adding that a committee had been established to review the agreement and address issues raised by stakeholders.

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Ahmad said union representatives would also be included in a committee to monitor implementation of the agreement.

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“There is no fee increase in this arrangement. It is part of the MoU we signed.

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“With the workers’ protest, we cannot meet with them when they have shut the ministry.

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“Normalcy must return to the ministry if the unions want us to listen to them,” she said.

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Ahmad said the government’s objective was to restore the quality and excellence historically associated with Unity Colleges.

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She said the decline in standards had occurred over several decades and required sustained interventions in infrastructure and teacher development.

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The minister added that the government was exploring various public-private partnership models to rehabilitate Unity Colleges, citing the Kano model as one of the options being considered.

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