•Dust gradually settles two weeks after pupils wreaked havoc on public schools
•Automatic promotion gone for good, says govt
From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Two weeks after, Oyo State is gradually recovering from the events of Thursday October 27, 2016, across the state.
On that day, students of some public secondary schools in the state ran amok, burning down schools and destroying government property.
The pupils, it was gathered, were outraged at government over the implementation of its policy cancelling automatic promotion in public primary and secondary schools in the state.
Daily Sun gathered that the pupils went berserk when they received their report card between the second and third weeks of October and observed that many of them failed.
Reports said when the pupils received their report cards for the last academic session, they had settled in their new classes and purchased school uniforms and textbooks for their senior classes.
New policy
The Oyo State government had set a new promotion policy that stipulates that only students with 50 per cent in Mathematics and English Language should be promoted to the next class in order to raise the standard and quality of the students that would sit for external examinations being conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) or National Examination Council (NECO).
But what actually delayed their report cards till October, when the last academic session should have ended in July? The closure of schools by the state government as a result of a violent demonstration by students of public secondary schools in Ibadan in June over a government policy was the reason.
Government, on June 6, 2016, closed down public primary and secondary schools in the state. The students lost seven weeks of academic activities to the closure as well as the strike embarked on by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) in the state.
When the strike was suspended, the Oyo State Government rescheduled the 2015/2016 academic session that ran from Tuesday, July 26, to Friday, September 9, 2016. Students of Junior Secondary School (JSS3) sat for their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) between August 8 and August 18, 2016.
The third term examination for public primary and secondary schools was jeld between August 22 and September 2. The students had a week’s break, from Monday, September 12 to 16. The 2016/2017 academic year started on Monday, September 19, 2016.
Sheer terror
A visit to the Anglican/Methodist Secondary School in Oyo bore evidence to the destruction in the structures. The pupils vandalised the school fence, louver blades, windows, ceiling, staff room, classrooms and other property of the state in the school.
Principal of the School, Mr. John Oladiran, said the report cards were distributed to pupils on Friday, October 21, 2016, and the school pupils staged the violent protest the following Monday.
The story was the same at Oba Adeyemi High School, Araromi, Oyo State, where the pupils also destroyed government property during their protest.
At Community Secondary School, Iyana/Idi-Ose, Ibadan, the pupils were said to have pursued the teachers out of the school premises with stones. They also reportedly vandalised school property after they received their report cards on Friday, October 21, 2016.
Investigation by Daily Sun showed that only one student, Miss Adenike Adeniran, got promoted from SSI commercial class to SSII commercial class, among the 26 students in her class.
At an encounter with the reporter, Adenike thanked God for saving her life, saying some of her classmates would have killed or maimed her.
She said: “I received my report card and I was happy that I was promoted to SSII from SSI. I am in the commercial class because I want to become a chartered accountant. But I discovered that the 25 other students in the same commercial class with me failed. They were crying and I too joined them in crying. So, we shed bitter tears together.
“The tears I shed with them actually saved my life. Many of my classmates came to meet me later and said they would have pounced on me if I hadn’t joined them in crying. Now, my parents have said I should not go to that school anymore. They are now seeking transfer for me to another school.”
At Ojoo High School, Alaka, Ibadan, students vandalised school property, including the fence, classrooms, staff room and so on.
The students of Isale-Oyo Community High School, went violent on Thursday October 27, after they received their report cards. There was mass failure in the school and the students set ablaze a block of classrooms. They reportedly ran away from the school premises after they saw the classrooms in flames. But for the quick intervention of the Oyo State Fire Service, the whole of the block would have been razed. They were alerted to the development by the school authorities.
Later that evening, Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Adeniyi Olowofela, announced that government had shut down five schools following the protests. Three of the schools are in Oyo town and two are in Ibadan.
He explained that the policy on the cancellation of automatic promotion for students from a class to the next higher class in all public schools was contained in a circular sent to education stakeholders across the state on April 23, 2015.
He said: “The effort was to address our examination preparedness with the immediate cancellation of automatic promotion in all classes. Because we are usually ill-prepared for external examinations, our state always comes embarrassingly short, even behind states that are traditionally considered to be educationally backward.”
Olowofela said it was saddening that some hoodlums parading themselves as students decided to cause mayhem in some schools, thereby disturbing the peace of the law-abiding individuals in the schools.
From classroom to court
Following the violent demonstration, the police arrested some students. Twenty-six of the suspects, aged between 14 and 25 years, were arraigned before a Chief Magistrate’s Court in Oyo. The police accused the students, who were arraigned in three batches, of destroying public property and conducting themselves in a manner likely to breach the peace of the community.
The first batch comprised 10 students, who were dragged to court on allegations of destroying electronic gadgets valued at over N1 million. The second batch of 13 students was accused of arson, malicious damage and conduct likely to cause violence at Community High School, Isale-Oyo, and Oba Adeyemi High School.
According to the police, the offences were punishable under Section 443 of the criminal code, Cap 38, Volume 1, Laws of Oyo State of Nigeria, 2000.
The third batch consisted of three students. They were accused of destroying school property at Anglican/Methodist Secondary School, Ajagba.
The students, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. The presiding Chief magistrate, Mrs. O.O. Ogunkanmi, admitted the accused to bail in the sum of N50,000 and two sureties in the like sum for each student in the first batch of suspects. She adjourned the case to January 10, 2017, for mention.
But the prosecuting and defence counsel for the for second batch of the suspects argued on the jurisdiction of the court to entertain a case of arson. The magistrate, in her ruling, ordered the suspects to be kept in police custody at Iyaganku, Ibadan, until she would make her ruling on whether her court had jurisdiction to try the case or not. The third batch of the students got s similar ruling.
The suspects included Tiamiyu Ibrahim, 20; Bilahu Ramon, 25; Ahmed Salami,21; Ogunniyi Sunday,15; Fatai Sodiq, 21; Wasiu Ridwan, 21; Mustapha Bolaji, 22; Babalola Isaiah,15; Adekunle Aliu,17; Salami Wakeel, 25; Taofiki Ibrahim,14; Kolade Sheu Tijani, 21; Ogunwole Ifadare,19; Tajudeen Ibrahim, 15; Olanrewaju Sodiq,15; Fasasi Roheeb 17; Olalekan Afeez, 17; Taiwo Moyo, 16; Oladejo Soliu, 17; Adejare Rilwan, 18; Ajisafe Basit, 18; Oluokun Joel, 22; Fagbemiro Sunday, 16; Shittu Roheeb, 16; Adebayo Olamide,17; and Soliu Ibrahim,19.
Why govt stopped automatic promotion
Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism in the state, Mr. Toye Arulogun, said automatic promotion of pupils was cancelled in a bid to arrest the mass failure being recorded by Oyo State pupils in the Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) in the last 15 years in the state.
Daily Sun gathered that Oyo State was at the 26th position in the 2016 results released by WAEC. The state was in the 34th position in 2011 in the same examination.
According to Arulogun, it was unacceptable for the state to occupy the lowest rung of the ladder in the senior school certificate examinations being conducted by WAEC and NECO, stressing that Oyo should be setting the pace. He affirmed that the state was known for many firsts and its education sector should be the benchmark for others, so the on-going reforms in the education sector were inevitable in the face of the consistent high number of failures in the SSCE, which he said was a key yardstick for performance. He insisted that no amount of protests would make the state change its stance on the no-automatic-promotion policy in public secondary schools in the state.
Scary statistics
Arulogun, who quoted data from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, said: “We cannot encourage automatic promotion with the woeful performance of our students in examinations in the last 15 years. The statistics we have from the Ministry of Education strongly support the state government’s stance.
“In 2008, 61,232 sat for the exam, 5,608 passed; in 2009, 60,444 sat for the exam, 7,204 passed. In 2010, 65,330 sat for the exam, 8,757 passed. In 2011, 72,559 sat for the exam and 12,314 passed while in 2012, there were 75,179 candidates and 12,314 passed.
“The situation has been the same in the last three years. In 2013, 74,319 wrote the exams, 16,049 passed. In 2014, 77,685 sat for the exam and 16,197 passed and in 2015, there were 78,897 candidates, 17,051 passed.
“The step to sustain the cancellation of automatic promotion was taken in the overall interest of the public. We must give our children quality education.”
Stakeholders react
The coordinator of a socio-cultural group, Oyo Development Initiative, Dr. Adesola Okanlawon, urged the state government not treat the violent protests staged by the students with kid gloves. He called for strict measures against the pupils, with a view to preventing a recurrence.
Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, said the institution had decided to adopt some public secondary schools in Ibadan, the state capital, as part of its social corporate responsibility, to ensure better moral and academic excellence.
Cleric advises Buhari on Nigeria’s problems
•’Change should begin with President’
By Tessy Igonmu and Job Osazuwa
A cleric has handed President Muhammadu Buhari a recipe for overcoming the daunting challenges plaguing the country.
Pastor Lovina Amangala Iburene, founder of Truth Ministry of Christ, declared recently that, for Nigeria to enjoy peace, abundance and security, Buhari must be open-minded and embrace an all-inclusive government that would treat every citizen with love, equal rights and justice.
She averred that terrorism, unemployment, militancy and the South East agitation for self-governance could be mitigated when the President treats every Nigerian equally, irrespective of ethnic, religious or political affiliations.
She expressed the fear that lack of openness could lead to chaos and called for urgent, proactive steps by the authorities to address “what always leads to the fragile security situation in the country.”
Iburene noted the judiciary in Nigeria had been hijacked by those in power and called on Buhari to quickly fulfil the change agenda he promised Nigerians while seeking their votes in 2015. She argued that, contrary to Buhari’s “Change Begins With Me” campaign, real change should be a top-to-bottom matter. The cleric also urged Buhari not to be selective about whom to investigate and prosecute, just as she advised that recovered loots should be injected back into the economy for quick rebound from recession.
Iburene also had a word for those alleged to have stolen the country blind. She called on them to voluntarily return their loot or face the consequences of their actions. In her view, Buhari ought to reduce the frequency of his foreign trips, because the cost of governance had escalated and it was doing Nigeria more harm than good.
“He wants us to tighten our belts, yet he travels around spending our resources. You promised to give Nigerians change, and not the other way round. The change the President preaches must reflect in all his actions that include appointments, handling of religious matters and ethnic issues,” she said.
Iburene said that, as a preacher of God’s Word and one who believed that only the truth could free Nigeria from all forms of bondage, she was calling on public office holders to be fair in their dealings and have the fear of God.
According to her: “When the righteous rule, the people would rejoice. Why do we want to continue living dubious lives and yet expect blessings from a God whose eyes are too holy to behold sin? Why is it that we love to manipulate people and expect things to be well with us? Every day, we talk about peace, but we don’t want to follow the rules that will ensure peace.”
The cleric pleaded with “those being led and leaders” to return to God for the forgiveness of their sins, stressing that God has for too long been taken for granted in Nigeria.
Canvassing for resource control, she averred that all states must be allowed to manage their resources, while the Federal Government acted as check and balance to ensure accountability. She also charged the media to step up their regulatory functions and ensure regularly monitoring and publication of public funds and their disbursement.
Still on the issue of corruption, Iburene said public offices should be made less attractive, calling for a 90 per cent slash of politicians’ remuneration.
Among the many issues she dwelt n, the activist-cleric asked the Federal Government to release those who were in detention and who were “unnecessarily” detained, noting that it was baffling that many Boko Haram members had been released after their arrest while some other people like pro-Biafra activist, Nnamdi Kanu, were still being kept behind bars; this set of people, she said, should be released, rehabilitated and re-integrated into society, as they could be productively empowered with skills like farming, shoe-making, hairstyling, and clothes-making.
Iburene urged Nigerian youths to shun all violent acts and criminality, and unite to fight for what is right and stop taking the law into their own hands. She also drew attention to the environmental degradation in the Niger Delta, even as she decried the underdevelopment of the zone, especially in Bayelsa State.
“It is unbelievable that so many communities where crude oil was discovered long ago still remain backward. Oloibiri, the first place where oil was discovered, in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, is still a village. The Federal and state governments have raped Oloibiri for too long and I don’t think those responsible will go scot-free. If they don’t receive their punishment now, it will be in the future. If not here, then it would be eternal, if nothing is done to address the anomaly,” she said.
Finally, she called on Buhari and the service chiefs to ensure that the North East region of the country pillaged by insurgents is made safe before internally displaced opersons are sent back to avoid further bloodshed.