By Osahon Osahon
Following the mayhem unleashed on Idogbo Secondary School in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of Edo State by yet to be identified hoodlums, the State Government says it is set to review its education policies with a view to decongest all public schools in the State.
The government also said plans are underway to provide psychosocial services for students, review its admission policies into schools across the State, control population and strictly enforce discipline, as part of measures to check attacks on teachers and school facilities.
This was made known Wednesday evening, by the State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Joan Osa-Oviawe, after a delegation of the State Government, led by Governor Godwin Obaseki, visited the school, to assess the level of damage unleashed on the school properties and teachers by alleged hoodlums last week.
She said, “This is a very disturbing occurrence in this school. We are taking a very specific step to address this problem once and for all, so as to make sure it doesn’t happen in other parts of the state.
“We are going to review our policies on admission for us to decongest our schools. The population of this school is high, so it’s important that we address this issue before this school is reopened.”
The Commissioner further disclosed that Governor Obaseki has approved the recruitment of teachers under the Edo STAR fellowship programme, fill in gaps that already exist in senior secondary schools across the State.
She added: “Damage has been done and there are still some other additional things that we need to do to ensure that we provide a conducive environment for learning for this school and similar schools.”
“We want to create an enabling environment for all our students, not just infrastructure but also to provide psychosocial services for schools like this. We are going to make sure that there are guidance counselors and there are careers counselors.
“We are going to meet with all the communities where some of these students come from and meet with the parents and collectively come up with a solution that will help bring back discipline and accountability into our school.
“Government has zero-tolerance for this kind of unruly behavior. It is not acceptable as there was no reason for this. We are not going to stand for this kind of behavior; the parents and the students are going to be held accountable for this,” she reassured.
Earlier, the principal of Idogbo Secondary School, Mr. Sunday Osaretin, while giving account of what transpired, said that some students and unknown hoodlums numbering 49, invaded the school premises hauling dangerous objects at students and teachers.
Osaretin said that it took the efforts of the police personnel and vigilante to put the situation under control.
