Oyo principals debunk ‘no grant, no exam’ stance

All Nigerian Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) Oyo state chapter has debunked a report going round that public secondary schools in Oyo state are holding back on the start of first term examination due to backlog of running grants owed them.

A source within the association reportedly stated, “We had suffered for too long tolerating this government by trying in our own way to cover up so many inadequacies in our schools. Yet, the governor goes to town to blackmail us that he refused to release grants because we could not account for the ones he had released. We want the governor to come out with the list of those culprits among us. We are tired of these lies and unfair generalization.

“Since the governor came on board, he had released grants for only three terms, a session out of three sessions. Our members have been very loyal to this government.

Yet, what we get in return is character assassination. The governor in an attempt to cover up his failure had at different fora accused school principals wrongly.
“Henceforth, we are not going to cover up anything. The governor should prepare to fund his free education policy. So many things are going wrong in the school system that we are covering up. Unfortunately,the seeds of those inadequacies have begun to germinate with the last WAEC rating as an example. We are the ones being accused of incompetence.”

However, the state leadership of ANCOPSS has said their is no iota of truth in the news.

The state PRO, Mr. Dele Omololu in a phone call Wednesday told newsmen that schools would commence first term exams starting this week adding the news did not emanate from ANCOPSS.

“I discussed with the state president and secretary yesterday night and there was nothing like that.

“In fact we are debunking the news. Schools will start their first term exams this week or next week,” he said.

Also, the ANCOPSS chairman of chairmen in Ogbomoso zone, Prince Subomi Adedoyin, put lies to the report.

He said while speaking with newsmen that “the news is a fabrication. No truth in the news, schools will start exams this week or next week,” he disclosed.

Independent findings by Journalists however revealed that schools are owed backlogs of running grants.

Principals are thus said to be having difficulties securing funds to conduct the exams – printing question papers and providing answer sheets to their students, “nonetheless they dare not talk because of fear.”

It is recalled that Engr. Seyi Makinde upon assuming the governorship of the state in 2019 outlawed payment of fees by students promising to start paying running grants to schools.

However, this has been irregular engendering muzzled complaints and grumblings by the public schools’ administrators.

Credit: Ogb