Organised labour has raised concerns over the proposed concession of King’s College, Lagos.

It warned that the arrangement could undermine workers’ rights, threaten job security and make access to quality public secondary education more difficult for children from average-income families.

President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, and National President of the Precision, Electrical and Related Equipment Senior Staff Association (PERESSA), Rufus Olusesan, in separate statements, opposed the proposed concession, while acknowledging concerns over the years of neglect, underfunding and deteriorating facilities at the institution.

Ajaero warned that handing over the management of King’s College to its old students could set a precedent for conceding other Federal Unity Colleges, with implications for the future of publicly funded education and the workers employed in the institutions.

“Once the King’s College Old Boys initiative succeeds, relying on precedent, other Unity Colleges will be concessioned to nebulous entities, entities of doubtful origin without the capacity to manage secondary school education,” he said.

He cautioned that such arrangements could eventually lead to new school fees and tariffs, potentially putting the colleges beyond the reach of children from average-income families regardless of their academic ability.

For the NLC president, the deterioration of King’s College should compel government to improve funding and management rather than transfer responsibility for public education to private or non-government entities .

“Yet, the obligation to educate its citizenry resides with the State. It is a duty it cannot abdicate,” he said.
PERESSA, however, focused specifically on the implications of the concession for teachers and other workers at the institution, warning that a change in management could expose employees to redundancy, displacement, contract employment, casualisation and deterioration in their conditions of service.

Olusesan said workers who had built their careers within the public education system should not become casualties of any restructuring undertaken in the name of improving the school.

“Education workers are not commodities to be traded,” he said, insisting that workers’ welfare and dignity must remain central to any decision on the future management of King’s College.

The union said any concession agreement affecting the institution must expressly protect existing workers’ employment rights, seniority, benefits, pension entitlements, staffing arrangements and collective bargaining rights.

It also called for organised labour to be involved in negotiations and restructuring that could affect workers, urging the Federal Government to engage the NLC, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), relevant education-sector unions and the Parent Teachers Association.

According to PERESSA, such consultations should address job security, conditions of service, pension and other accrued entitlements, staffing levels, and existing employment agreements before implementing the proposed arrangement.

The union urged the Federal Government and the Federal Ministry of Education to suspend implementation of the concession and consider increased public funding, adequate recruitment, improved infrastructure and better working conditions as alternatives.

Ajaero similarly urged government to adequately fund and maintain King’s College and other Unity Colleges, stressing that their contribution to national integration and quality education could not be quantified.

He argued that government should preserve competition among missionary, private and public schools rather than transfer public institutions through concession.

“Rather than sell the schools through the back door, government should maintain or sustain the culture of open competition between missionary schools, private schools and government schools,” he said.

Both labour leaders warned that what happens at King’s College could have wider implications if similar concession arrangements are extended to other Federal Unity Colleges, making the protection of workers’ rights and affordable access to public education central to the debate over the proposed concession.