No ban on day students at King’s College — Principal

Principal of King’s College Lagos, Andrew Ali Agada, has said it was not true that the college had made it compulsory for all it students to stay in the hostel.

He also debunked the claim that the management had increased the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) development levy from N5,000 to N10,000 per student per term, saying the claim was also untrue.

The principal refuted both claims which had gone viral on social media at a news conference on Friday with the leadership of PTA of the college in attendance.

He said he would not have bothered to address the media over what he called fake news and the earlier protest by a so-called concerned parents in the college but for the purpose of putting the record straight in the interest of parents and students and other stakeholders of the college.

He said this was because even though King’s College would have loved all its students to stay in the hostels so as to be able to get their full concentration on their studies and other activities expected of them as the policy specified, the school had no sufficient space over the years to accommodate all students.

He said that was why the students of the college at both junior and senior classes were always given option of either to be coming from home or to stay in the hostels at both the main and satellite campuses of the college.

He said even at that, priority of who to benefit in hostel facility arrangement had always been given to students whose parents or guardians live outside Lagos State.

He explained the real situation on ground as regards hostel facility, saying at the moment, the school has more boarding facility space to accommodate more students from JSS1 to SS1 and then encouraged them to utilise the opportunity from next academic session while the same oppportunity was not open to those in SS2 and SS3.

He also said the school wants to ensure that both day and boarding students maintain their residence arrangement particularly throughout JSS or SSS classes for easiier control and monitoring rather than to stay in the hostel this term and coming from home another term. 

He said that was why he particularly wondered why some people under whatever guise could now misinterprete that development as a compulsory policy by the school management.

He maintained that boarding facility remains optional for students of the college. 

On the PTA development levy, he said the decision to pay additional N3,000 per student was strictly that of the association and arrived at, at its general meeting  before the students went on long vacation.

The PTA chairman of the college, Sunday Ameh, corroborated principal’s both claims.

He said the hostel facility still remains optional to students of the college across classes and not aware of making it compulsory while N3,000 additional payment (and not N5,000 as reported by some media platforms) as PTA levy per student was strictly the decision of parents at its last congress.

He said truly, the approved PTA levy by the Federal Government for all it unity colleges including King’s College had been N5,000 per student per term over the years but that the current economic reality in the country with daily increase in the cost of items and services neccessitated for the additional N3,000 levy per student.

He emphasised that the decision was jointly agreed upon by the parents and to be effected next term for now with the hope that the economy may get better anytime soon.

He said PTA injects up to N60 million as intervention funds into the college yearly even as the school needs keep increasing each day.

He said as a way of augment shortage of teachers and other workers for example,  PTA employed up to 75 academic and non-academic adhoc staff and pay them up to N4 million monthly salary.

“We also pay the Lagos State licensed PSP solid waste collector that is serving the college up to N560, 000 on monthly basis.

“The amount was about N200,000 monthly before it jumped to the current price with the refuse collector using the increasing cost of diesel and vehicle parts among others to justify the increment.

“Apart from those ones, we’re also paying about N320,000 monthly to the cleaning contrators and likewise assist the college in buying diesel to run the generator when there is power outage and also do many other things like repairs of students’ toilets and so forth,” he added.

Agada said it would be difficult for the college just like other federal government colleges to run effectively without these interventions from the parents.

“So, it was shocking to hear that some parents protested the new N3,000 intervention levy after we all agreed to pay the amount at least for now at our last congress so as to further assist the college. 

“Even if some parents later have contrary opinion and wanted to raise objection to the earlier decision, they should have contacted the PTA leadership or better still lodge their complaints on our general PTA WhatsApp platform for another round of discussion rather than now attributing the increment to the school management,” he stressed.