Teachers’ union urges reversal of King’s College concession

The Nigeria Union of Teachers has called for the immediate suspension and reversal of the Federal Government’s plan to transfer the management of King’s College, Lagos, to the school’s old boys’ association under a public-private partnership arrangement. NUT national president Audu Amba announced the union’s position at the opening of its 59th National Conference of Delegates in Enugu on Tuesday. He said the union would resist the transfer of management and operational responsibility for the 116-year-old institution to a private association.

Amba said the union recognised the contributions made by former students and other stakeholders to educational institutions. However, he argued that those contributions should not lead to the privatisation of a public school. “Education is a public responsibility and a fundamental right, not a commercial privilege,” Amba said, according to the source material.

He called for meaningful consultations involving teachers, parents and other critical stakeholders. The NUT president linked the dispute to wider concerns about the education sector, including poor teacher welfare, shortages of teaching staff, deteriorating infrastructure, inadequate learning materials, insecurity and insufficient funding. He said federal allocations had remained below the internationally recommended benchmark of 15 to 20 per cent, while many state allocations were “abysmally poor”.

Amba also urged the Federal Government to implement teacher incentives announced during the 2020 World Teachers’ Day celebration. The measures include a special salary scale, bursaries for education students, a special pension scheme, rural housing and loan facilities. He criticised some states, including the Federal Capital Territory, for adding conditions to the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers Act, which provides for retirement at 60 or after 40 years of service.

Enugu Governor Peter Mbah, who opened the conference, said education had received more than 33 per cent of the state budget across three cycles and described artificial intelligence as a tool to support rather than replace teachers.