From Clement Adeyi,Osogbo
Osun chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) has rejected the state government’s plan to hold WAEC qualifying examinations to be conducted by the state’s Ministry of Education.
The party alleged it was a ploy by Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration to ensure only few candidates are presented for the examination following an abysmal outing this year.
The PDP said from its findings, “government resorted to limiting the candidates that will sit for the examination to only 7,000 out of 35,000 eligible public school students, because government is broke and secondly, because it is afraid the state might further slip down from its present 29th position on WAEC passing rate, should all eligible candidate attempt the examination.”
Spokesperson of the party in the state, Prince Diran Odeyemi said this in a statement issued in Osogbo, yesterday.
The statement also alleged that in the last WAEC, Osun is still owing the examination body millions of aira and thus, the result is not available in schools across the state. “It is a pity Osun is in this mess. The situation is resultants effects of years of cover up, neglect and overt insincerity evidenced by quick motion without any movement in handling the delicate task of providing quality education for knowledge seekers in the state…”
“Aregbesola resorted to limiting the number of candidates because he could no longer cope with the electoral promises of paying WAEC fees for public school students,” it added.
“If he goes ahead to register only 7, 000 that were declared qualified in the mock examination, Aregbesola only needs half of the number, 3,500 to pass at least 5 subjects, including Maths and English to earn Osun a place among best 10 states. Should this be achieved, Mr. Governor would have successfully deceived peoples outside the state, when the reality remains that Osun’s education has been completely destroyed under his watch,” the statement further explained.
“We implore EFCC and other anti graft bodies to probe Osun’s spending on education sector from 2010. We also advise Aregbesola to stop looking for escape route. He should revisit his school merger policy and motivate teachers, if he is sincere about arresting the downward slide in the sector.”
