Public Secondary Students Protest Mass Failure

There has been protest by pupils in public secondary schools in Lagos State against mass failure following their promotional examination from SSSII to SSSIII.

The state Ministry of Education determined to reduce the promotion of ‘incompetent’ pupils from SSS II to SSS III implemented a new policy.

The policy recommends that for a pupil in SSS II to be promoted to SSS III and the state to pay the West African Examination Council fees, the pupil must pass the third term examination.

Besides passing English and Mathematics, the scripts were also taken to different schools for grading. This is contrary to the previous method where a cumulative of first, second and third term results guaranteed promotion.

Our correspondent gathered that the new method resulted into mass failure in some of the secondary schools with schools in Education District III being the worst hit.

Some teachers who spoke to our correspondent across different public schools in the state lamented the unruly acts of their pupils after receiving their results.

Our correspondent learnt that some of the schools were vandalised and teachers, including principals, threatened by some of the pupils.

The aluminum window in the office of the Vice Principal, Army High School, was destroyed and properties damaged at Odo Obara High School, Epe.

The protest, which started on Wednesday, increased in the Education District IIII on Thursday and Friday.

During the protest in Epe, the students marched to the palace and disrupted activities along major roads.

The protesting students also locked out teachers and pupils of Alaro Community High School, Epe on Friday. When the teachers and pupils got to the school in the morning, they discovered fetish substances at the gate.

The substances sighted by our correspondent included a dog head attached to other animals’ bodies and a red cloth tied to palm fronds. The red cloth was spread on top of the gate while the dog head and other fetish substances were placed under the gate.

In a video obtained by our correspondent on Friday, it took courage from some of the teachers to remove the charms.

While some of the teachers were seen praying with the Bible, others were reciting prayers in Arabic.

While removing the charms, one of the teachers, said, “If anybody wants to protest, let them go to Alausa. Don’t bring it to Alaro. We are not the one that failed them. Go and meet the Commissioner of Education. Why should they come and put ‘juju’ to kill other pupils and staff here?”

At Epe Girls High School, a SSS II student in science class identified only as Omolara, was rumoured to have drunk sniper after seeing her result.

An official in the school, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “Yes, it is true. It happened on Wednesday. She survived after being rushed to the hospital.”

Also, it was gathered that a pupil in Community Senior High School, Orimedu, was involved in an accident over his result.

“The pupil lost consciousness and was hit by a car after hearing about his result. I don’t know his situation for now because no update on it reached me,” a teacher in the school told our correspondent.

Speaking on the development, the Public Affairs Officer, Lagos State Ministry of Education, Kayode Sutton, faulted the pupils’ actions.

He described as false reports that the pupils in Epe were failed deliberately.

Sutton said, “Generally, there is a benchmark for pupils in Lagos public schools that nobody should go below. It now happened that the majority of schools in District 111 fell below the benchmark and most of the affected pupils felt that the benchmark should be reduced to favour them.

“They agitated and did whatever they did contrary to the rules governing the conduct of learning and education in Lagos State. When there is a benchmark, it has to be strictly adhered to.

“If any pupil fails to meet up with the benchmark, the pupil deserves to fail or repeat the class. In that instance, the schools did the necessary thing. The pupils will not dictate to the schools or government. This is not a witch-hunt. It is not that we don’t want any pupil to proceed to the next class, but we want the best for them and the state.”