The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) of King’s College, Lagos has described unfounded claims that the school management and association imposed a development levy on parents.

This followed a protest in the school on Thursday by some persons claiming to be parents.

Addressing reporters on Friday, the PTA chairman, Mr. Sunday Ameh, with the Principal Mr. Andrew Ali Agada, debunked claims of levy imposition and ban on day school.

The PTA Chairman noted that an emergency was held by the association on July 30, 2022 where it was agreed by parents to pay an additional N3, 000 temporarily to assist the school to meet up with some of its obligations.

He said: “We had an emergency PTA meeting on July 30 to address issues of indiscipline and inflation in the country because we can no longer meet up with some of our obligations because of high inflation.”

Ameh said having unanimously agreed on an additional N3000 temporarily to assist the school, he was shocked by allegations the school imposed it on them with the approved PTA levy of N5000.

The PTA Chairman said the association pays the salary of 75 school staff monthly, which amounts to N4 million.

Ameh noted that the school was groaning under the weight of bills with the N560, 000 paid weekly for evacuation of wastes and N320, 000 for cleaning contractors monthly.

He said: “Specifically, at the meeting, we addressed the issue of evacuation of waste on our two campuses. Before now waste disposal costs N200, 000, but as we speak because of the high diesel price, the LAWMA tariff has increased. They can no longer take N200, 000 per month, now it is N70,000 per load for a truck weekly.

“That amounts to N560, 000 per month for both campuses. We have managed this for about 2 months, and it has put us in a high cost of maintenance. We can no longer do other things apart from waste evacuation.”

Ameh, who noted that the intervention of the PTA was crucial, said the association is committed to the school with the overall maintenance of facilities for both campuses from its little resources.

Agada noted that the management is not banning day students though guidelines for Unity school is 100 percent boarding.

He said: “When we held a PTA meeting, I informed parents on the need to bring their wards to the hostel because they come late to school, some even miss lessons. We are not banning anyone from being a day student.

“It was a suggestion to parents to curtail truancy and indiscipline.” (The Nation)

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