The government of the State of Osun has ordered the suspension of five school principals of Baptist High School, Adeeke, in Iwo, over mass failure of students of the school.
The suspension order was handed down by the Executive Chairman, Osun State Education Quality Assurance and Morality Enforcement Agency, Dr. Isiaka Owoade.
Owoade, who gave the order when he paid an unscheduled visit to the school in Iwo, lamented the mass failure of the pupils of the school, noting that it was worrisome and amounted to dereliction of duty on the part of the school principals.
While noting that the state government would not condone indiscipline, poor productivity, ineffectiveness of public officers and dereliction of duty, Owoade also said it was an act of sabotage on the part of the suspended public officers that despite huge resources the state government had invested in education in the state, some principals were still comfortable with the low record of students at external examinations.
The reason as it was gathered is that no single student of the school passed any subject in the recent 2017 external examinations, including WASC and NECO, a development which angered Owoade.
He asked the principals to proceed on suspension immediately.
According to him, “Following my unscheduled visit to Baptist High School, Iwo, all the five principals of the school have been suspended with immediate effect for poor productivity, ineffective leadership and dereliction of duty.
“Records of the school in external examinations between 2012 and 2017 is extremely poor with a pass rate at 2.8% in 2016 and 0% in 2017.
“Between 2012 and 2015, a total of 1688 students passed out of the school and only 13 passed.
“This is woeful. My responsibility is to ensure that our students are properly taught to ensure that they pass their examinations.”
While speaking with INDEPENDENT on phone, Dr. Owoade said the inspection visit to the school was part of the routine visit by his agency, assuring that the government would probe the matter and get to the root of the problem.
He further declared that the suspension was necessitated to allow the government to get to the root of the matter and is not to punish the principals.
