The Ogun State Governor, Senator
Ibikunle Amosun, has ordered the sacking of six officials of the state
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, including a secondary
school teacher, over alleged offensive examination question. Those sacked include two Grade Level 17
officers, Mrs. Folashade Oresegun, who was the Director, Education
Support Services, and Mr. Rotimi Odunsi, who was the Director,
Others are a Grade Level 10 officer, Mr.
E.O. Asegbe, a Grade Level 8 officer, Taylor Damilola , and an English
Language teacher in Mayflower Secondary School, Ikenne, Mr. Joel
Adegbenro.
The sacking of both Oresegun and Odunsi
has been converted to compulsory retirement while the four others were
summarily dismissed.
Our correspondent gathered that their
offence might not be unconnected with a comprehension passage in the
English Language examination conducted by the ministry for the Unified
Examination in Public Secondary Schools for the third term of the
2014/2015 academic session.
The offensive section was Section C,
where the pupils were asked to summarise a comprehension passage on a
policy defect on education.
It was alleged that it was considered too critical of the state government.
The section partly read, “There is no
arguing about the fact that the government is merely paying lip service
to the development of education. It is true that a lot of money is being
spent on the education sector but with little or no impact felt by the
people, except where we want to deceive ourselves.
“Many schools run by the government,
which were formerly known for academic excellence have suddenly lost
their prestige and are living on past glories. No wonder, many parents
and guardians are threateningly left with only one option, to withdraw
their wards from these schools to other ones that are better managed.
“The evidences to show that the
government is not doing enough to assist in the development of education
are many. Even pupils in both primary and secondary schools can
volunteer a good list on their finger tips.
“One of the numerous indications is the
government’s inability to pay running cost to schools. The running cost
is the token amount per pupil paid to school administrators to run the
affairs of the school in a term. This has been neglected to pile up for
several academic sessions.
“Another one is the regular poor conduct
of terminal examinations. These examinations are not usually conducted
as and when due. The government may have one excuse or the other, but
real educationists know that appropriate timing is a strong factor in
the process of Continuous Assessment (CA) of students. Thus, a
situation, where for instance, the first term examination is shifted to
second term is an outright departure from the norms and ethics of
Continuous Assessment.”
The summary passage was said to have been culled from Jola Adegbenro’s Issues on Education Today.
The governor and some other top
government officials were allegedly angry with this section, which they
believed made a veiled reference to what obtained in the state.
Consequently, the embattled officials
were invited to Abeokuta last week to face a disciplinary panel set up
by the state Bureau of Establishment and Training, where they were
quizzed.
The state’s Head of Service, Mrs. Modupe
Adekunle, while reacting to the sacking, said the government followed
the due process “because the affected officials were given opportunity
to defend themselves.”
She said, “I am aware that not all of
them were dismissed, some had their appointment terminated and some were
compulsorily retired.
“When the issue came up, the state
government put in the necessary process, a panel was set up to
investigate and based on their recommendations, the state Civil Service
Commission has to decide. It is a decision that has been relayed to the
affected officers.
“The normal process was that a panel was
set up, the report was forwarded to the Civil Service Commission for
the civil servants, the Teaching Service Commission, for the teachers.
“The decision was in line with the civil service rule, due process was followed to the latter.”
CREDIT: Punch NG
FACEBOOK COMMENTS
FACEBOOK COMMENTS
Osuntokun David
Nonsense
Endy Edeson
@DAVID:
i see nothing wrong with the said article. no person or school was
mentioned. it's a generalised article based on the poor system of
Nigeria education. the governor's action was uncalledful
Yvonne Onaibe
Trouble