Students Protest, attempt suicide over mass failure in Lagos schools

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.

It was 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.

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.

According to The Punch, substances sighted 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.

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.