Some secondary school students in Osun State on Thursday went on rampage over the decision of the state government not to pay the West African Examinations Council fees of those who do not perform creditably in the mock examination that precedes the WAEC examination.
The students damaged several government properties, especially in Ile-Ife.
The State Government was quick in condemning the act.
It described as shameful Thursday’s violent conducts of the High Schools students in Ife, Iwo and Ikire over their failure to qualify for state government’s sponsorship of the registration for the West African Examination Council.
The government said it was unthinkable that students who failed examinations and should be remorseful, face the challenges of correcting their academic poor performances could go out and vandalise government property in the name of protests.
In a statement by the Director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Office of the Governor, Semiu Okanlawon, government said the refusal of government to register them for West African School Certificate Examination was because of their performance, saying it would be irresponsible to continue to fund examination registrations of students who didn’t demonstrate readiness to pass.
The statement reads in part: “The Government of Osun, in the unmistakeable resolve and determination to bring the best out of the students, has said it will henceforth register only final year students for external examination after the conduct of the in-house mock examination.
“Students who fail to demonstrate their potential success at the final examination by scoring credits in at least four subjects will not be paid for by the government. Any parent who wants to gamble can register their children.”
The statement added that it is a verifiable fact that Osun State under Governor Rauf Aregbesola has turned around the education sector with the provision of a conducive environment, building of the state-of-the-art schools and the investment in training and retraining of teachers.
The statement noted that against this backdrop, government expected significant improvement in the average performance of its registered students in both WASCE and National Examination Council.
The statement said, “It is this decision of government that some disgruntled few among the students went to the streets to protest against in Ile-Ife and Iwo.
“Whereas government decision was first and foremost informed on the need to seek better performance of the students. Besides, the economic realities no longer permits wastage of resources.
“Thus government wanted only those who will excel after its investment on them and not those who will fritter away the meagre resources by performing abysmally in the examination.”
The statement noted that when the Aregbesola administration took over in November 2010, the performance of students in May/June WASCE result for that year was 15.68 per cent.
It added that the average performance for the three years (2011-2013) of Aregbesola administration was 21.32 per cent, representing an improvement of 36 per cent compared with the result of 2010.
Government stressed that compared with the average performance (13.26%) of the three years that preceded Aregbesola, the percentage improvement in performance of the Aregbesola years is a whopping 61 per cent.
The statement described this as a significant achievement considering the challenges the state had to contend with, especially with regard to low morale among teachers, students’ indiscipline and parents that were largely lacking in discharging their parental responsibilities.
Government warned that it will no longer condone any act of indiscipline and irresponsibility on the part of the young ones.
It further warned that the full weight of the law will be applied if such lawlessness repeats itself.
Trending
- OSUN: NANS seeks intervention from Governor Adeleke, threatens protest over fee hike, palliative
- Easter Celebration: IGP orders round-the-clock water-tight security at all public spaces
- Kogi poll: SDP witness contradicts self on alleged ‘affidavit forgery’ against Governor Ododo
- No BoT in Labour Party, spokesman dismisses takeover claims
- Nigerian writer urges preservation of literary heritage amid writer shortage
- Health professionals brainstorm in Abuja, seek drug free society
- CAF announce dates for Champions League, Confederation Cup Finals
- Tayo Ayinde withdraws suit against Gani Adams, restates commitment to peace