No fee increase under King’s College concession- FG

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 government and learners.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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