Blocks of classrooms were set on fire in Oyo on Thursday, marking the worst phase of secondary school students’ unrest that began days ago over mass failure in exams, Premium Times reports.
According to teachers, the classrooms set on fire were at Isale Community High School, Oyo Town. But students elsewhere have threatened to cause similar damage to public property in their schools.
Crisis erupted on Monday following mass failure in the last promotion examinations across secondary schools in Oyo State.
Pupils of Anglican Secondary School in Oyo reportedly unleashed mayhem on their teachers and destroyed billboards bearing Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s picture.
The Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Banji Olowofela, lamented poor performance of pupils in external examinations, saying public schools could no longer continue to breed substandard pupils.
“What government says is that there is no automatic promotion again. Our external examinations from1999 till date have been abysmally poor. If we push them to the outside world, we are not helping them. We are trying to give them the opportunity to rediscover themselves. The school has been closed indefinitely,” he added.
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