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Oluwatosin Ejalonibu
Ohun state government says the principal of Abeokuta Girls Grammar School (AGGS) was never scolded for suspending indefinitely students of the school who were caught smoking shisha in a viral video.
This is coming after reports had claimed that the principal had been suspended following her invitation to the State’s Education Ministry headquarters in Abeokuta, the State capital over the issue.
Ogun State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbagbu made this known while rolling out strategies to be taken by the government of the state to battle juvenile deliquencies in secondary schools in the State at a Press conference in Abeokuta, the State capital.
According to him rather than the reported suspension the principal was commended.
He said “The incidents that happened last term were that some students were smoking shisha and it circulated all over the social media and the next thing we had because we invited the principal of the school is that the principal has been suspended, the principal has been disgraced.
“I was surprised when I went abroad and I was introduced as education commissioner in Ogun and the person was saying is this not the commissioner that suspended a principal,I was shocked, that principal was commended and not suspended, we invited the principal and commended her for her action”.
“People forget that the school system is organised and things her done in an organised manner”.
The Education Commissioner added that the ministry would be holding series of meetings with Security Agencies, Principals and Heads of Schools, Parents and Teachers Assocoations and others, in order to form effective alliances against vices and juvenile delinquencies in schools.
“We are taking very serious steps against crimes and criminality in both public and private schools and private school owners should co-operate with us in this fight. We are the one that give licences to the all private schools and if any of them flout our directives, we can easily have their licences withdrawn.
“There will be naming and shaming such pupils that engage in crimes and juvenile delinquencies in our schools across the State. That will be done at School, Zonal and State Levels. We are also going to involve our pupils and engage in all sorts of extra-curricular activities to discourage the pupils from juvenile delinquencies.
“Students expelled should not be admitted into any public or private school in Ogun State, that is something that will be very difficult and that is why we put in place what we call the Learner Identification number.
“The E- platform we are using now will make it difficult for dual registration.
“Once you are in a school and you misbehave and you are sent away, it will be very difficult to get into another school in Ogun but, some of them will want to get into schools, and that is why we are meeting private school owners tommorow, for them, we are going to put sanctions because, we are the one that gave them operating licence, if some of these schools flout some of these regulations we can withdraw their licence.
“All of us have to be on the same page because if we expell a student from a school it would have been the last resort and we don’t want a situation that the expulsion won’t be effective.”
