Oyo Govt To Sanction Parents, Principals Of 50 Delisted Schools..... •It is not their fault but failure on part of government ― Folarin

Oyo Govt To Sanction Parents, Principals Of 50 Delisted Schools.....

•It is not their fault but failure on part of government ― Folarin 

The Oyo State Government has disclosed its plan to sanction Principals and Parents of recently delisted schools by the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) for examination malpractices in the state.

However, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has argued it is wrong on the part of the government to blame either the principals or the parents for what could aptly be described as leadership failure.

The governorship candidate of the party, Senator Teslim Folarin attributed the development to leadership failure. But the government insisted that it would not revert its decision to sanction both the principals and parents found wanting because of its zero tolerance for examination malpractices

The state Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Barr. Abiodun Abdu-Raheem who made the government position known recently warned principals to desist from encouraging examination malpractice which was becoming endemic in both the private and public schools in the state.

“It should be noted that the Oyo State Government has zero tolerance for examination malpractices, therefore, Principals and Teachers of both Private and Public Schools and parents were earlier warned to desist from any act of collaboration on examination malpractices as sanctions would be meted to concerned staff and parents,” he said.

Abiodun disclosed that only the West African Examination Council (WAEC) has the authority to release the list of schools that were identified to be involved in examination malpractices and de-recognise such schools accordingly.

He further disclosed that derecognized schools will not be permitted to present candidates for WAEC for a period of two years, saying “however, this does not debar students of such schools from sitting for the West African Examination Certificate (WAEC), as they are mobilised to the nearest school to write the WAEC; only the identified school is derecognized as a WAEC Centre”.

“It should be noted that the Government of Oyo State will waste no time to investigate any such occurrence, while the necessary punishments as enumerated above will be meted to anyone found guilty”, he added.

The Commissioner, however, advised heads of both public and private institutions in the state to desist from any act that could ridicule their schools and portray the image of the state in a bad light.

He, therefore, enjoined the general public to note that no student in the State would be prevented from writing the WAEC in the 2022/2023 Academic Session and subsequent years.

The 2023 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, Senator Teslim Folarin has blamed Governor Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the decline in the standard of education in the state.

Meanwhile, the APC gubernatorial candidate has lamented that under Makinde’s administration, Oyo State education is in a state of comatose. Hence, the need for holistic intervention of responsible and responsive government.

“Under Governor Seyi Makinde-led PDP administration, Oyo State ranked 33rd in external examinations and recently, 50 secondary schools were blacklisted and delisted by WAEC. The sad developments are unprecedented in the history of Oyo State.

“The most worrisome aspect of PDP government in Oyo State is the continuous leadership failure characterised by maladministration at all levels as a result of incompetence, state-sponsored insecurity, crippling of local government administration, the poor state of infrastructure, consultancy policy in tertiary institutions, growing debt profile, dereliction of duties and among others,” he added.

Folarin also warned Gov. Makinde against taking hasty decisions on the teachers and principals of the affected 50 schools sanctioned by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) for offences bordering on examination malpractices.

He submitted that it was neither the fault of the teachers nor the principals of the affected schools, rather Makinde should examine his education policy.

@INSTANTnews