Members of Parents Teachers Association, PTA, Grace High School,
Gbagada, Lagos, have protested the school’s directives that students,
who are preparing for the forthcoming West African Senior School
Certificate Examination, WASSCE, lodge in hotels to meet up with the
timing of the exam.
The protest took place in the early hours of
Monday, with protesting parents locked outside the entrance of the
school for hours.
Speaking on the WASSCE candidates’ dilemma, one
of the aggrieved parents, who simply identified herself as Mrs. Ada,
also accused the school of asking them to sign an “indemnity if we want
our children to resume, and we were wondering why that was necessary.
“We
are SS3 students’ parents, and our children, WASSCE candidates, have
been here for six years. The school was supposed to resume on August 4.
“We
have a platform where we have been asking grace school management their
plans for SSS3, when the government came out with the school resumption
plans. But they didn’t tell us anything.
“The Friday before
August 4, they called for a PTA meeting via online and asked us to sign
an indemnity if we want our children to resume, and we were wondering
why that was necessary.
“Because the government didn’t say we
should sign any indemnity. The government only asked that the school
should put certain things in place for schools to resume.
“They
now came back and said they are not opening the hostel facility. This is
a school that has children from all over Lagos; considering the fact
that 3rd Mainland and Eko bridges are blocked.
“The school
refused to resume on August 4, as other schools did. They have taken a
week away from revision, and they are just resuming today (Monday), and
these children have Maths for their WAEC on August 17.
“And they said the school would only operate between 9am and 12 noon. So just three hours of school.
“So
parents of WASSCE candidates will leave their work and come and drop
these children by 9am; I don’t know how they expect the children to go
home.
“So on the platform, we were complaining that we need to
have access to the hostel because that is part of our contract with
them.
“And the Vice Principal, Mr. Balogun, had the effrontery to
tell us to take our children to hotels in Gbagada, that if we cannot
bring our children, that they cannot open their hostels.
“So we
came here to even ask to see what they have in place since they can’t
accommodate our children. But they said no, and kept us outside since
6:30am.”
The parents also accused the school of calling armed
mobile policemen on them to disallow them from gaining entrance into the
school premises.
PTA Chair reacts
Expressing frustration
over issue, the PTA Chairman, Engr. Matin Etta, said: “They did one
meeting last week Friday and wanted to open the school next week (August
17), same day WASSCE candidates would start exams.
“But we
kicked against that and suggested they open today(Monday), before they
reasoned with us, giving the psychological burden.
“On the issue of boarding, for some people, boarding is the first checklist of deciding to take their children to school.
“There are many parents who wouldn’t have come to Grace High School if there were no boarding house.
“So
I said to them, to please consider opening it, based on the distance
between where children live and school. But they refused.
“I even
called the administrator yesterday(Sunday) and he said they didn’t get
the approval to open boarding. I know schools not up to Grace High
School’s standard that have opened boarding.
“The second thing
they can do if they don’t want to open the boarding house, is to call
parents together, and plead with parents that live closer to accommodate
children that live far.
“The school can exploit this avenue
instead of telling us to go and lodge my 13 years old child in a hotel
in this age and time, where sexual crimes are everywhere.
“There are some things that should not be said. It is wrong.”
The
parents later dispersed one after the other after several hours of
waiting for the school management to address them, to no avail.
Efforts to get the school’s reaction on the allegations over WASSCE candidates by the parents proved abortive.
However,
the school Public Relations Officer, Mr. Aypdeji Ayopo, said he was
going to get back to back with a reaction, which he had not done at
press time.
2 Comments
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