The Federal Government has said that even N2trn will not be enough to address the infrastructure deficit in the 115 Federal Unity Colleges across the country, citing decades of neglect that has left many of the schools in deplorable condition.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, stated this on Wednesday in Abuja while addressing journalists on the controversy surrounding the proposed management arrangement for King’s College, Lagos.
Alausa said the accumulated infrastructure decay in Unity Colleges over the last 40 years was so enormous that government alone could not fix it immediately despite increased investment in the education sector by the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
“President Bola Tinubu is investing in infrastructure, including the sub-sector, but there’s so much, significant infrastructure gap that has happened for 40 years and we don’t have the funds,” he said.
He noted that the estimated cost of rehabilitating schools in the South-West zone alone was close to N100bn.
To complement government funding, the minister said the Federal Government had secured approval to repurpose about $20m from a World Bank-supported programme for the comprehensive rehabilitation of selected Unity Colleges, with about 20 schools already identified to benefit from the intervention nationwide.
Alausa said the extensive deterioration informed the decision to explore a management arrangement with the King’s College Old Boys Association (KCOBA) for the rehabilitation and modernisation of King’s College, Lagos.
He explained that the arrangement was intended to mobilise additional resources through a non-profit foundation set up by the old boys while government retains ownership of the institution.
The minister dismissed reports that the government planned to sell any of the Unity Colleges or extend the King’s College arrangement to other schools.
“Let me be unequivocal, Federal Government is not selling any Unity College. Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Education, does not have the intention to sell any Unity College, and we will not sell any Unity College. That is the government position, and go and write it down and hold on to that, we are not selling the government institutions,” he said.
He said government had no plan to extend the arrangement to other Unity Colleges, stressing that government still has its responsibility for the schools.
Alausa said he had visited King’s College unannounced and observed poor conditions in hostels, bathrooms, classrooms, laboratories and other facilities, adding that the school had no electricity during his visit until he contacted the electricity distribution company, after which power was restored to the Senior Secondary School section.
He also raised security concerns over the use of parts of the school premises as a paid car park, saying unrestricted access by members of the public posed risks to students and had been directed to be cancelled.
According to him, KCOBA had expressed willingness to invest substantially in the institution while maintaining merit-based admission and ensuring students from across the country continue to have access.
He added that the association had claimed to have invested more than N2bn in supporting infrastructure at the college over the years.
On concerns over fees and jobs, the minister assured that the King’s College arrangement would not lead to an increase in school fees, noting that the agreement was subject to stringent Key Performance Indicators, KPIs, designed to protect government and learners.
He said the ministry had established an implementation and monitoring team to conduct unannounced inspections to ensure compliance.
The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, said no teacher would lose his job as a result of the arrangement and that affected teachers had been given the option to indicate where they wanted to be redeployed in line with Public Service Rules.
She said government was implementing teacher capacity-building programmes to improve learning quality and had established a committee to review the Memorandum of Understanding and address concerns raised by stakeholders, with union representatives to be included in monitoring its implementation.
Meanwhile, THE WHISTLER gathered that the two ministers are currently holding a meeting with labour leaders led by the National President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, (ASCSN) Comrade Bola Audu.
