……This is not only worrisome, but also unacceptable: NUT
…..Students no longer believe in hard work because of Yahoo Yahoo – ASSUS
The alarming trend in which teachers are attacked and assaulted in Ogun State schools by students and their parents, who invade schools with hired thugs/hoodlums to beat teachers for rebuking or disciplining erring students, is generating concerns among stakeholders
There is growing concern among stakeholders and particularly the government over the safety of teachers, especially in public secondary schools in Ogun State in recent times, threatening the delivery of qualitative teaching in the system. The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), are worried that teachers in the state’s schools are under constant threat of attacks or harassment by their students, who usually storm the schools with their parents and hired thugs/hoodlums to unleash mayhem on them for, dire to punish or discipline the students for any wrong doing.
Going by the worrisome trend, teachers have suddenly become targets of attacks and harassment by thugs or hoodlums hired by students or their parents, who beat and inflict injuries on them, thereby turning the teachers to endangered species, especially in public schools. However, this untoward activity of students in schools have widely been condemned and criticised by the state government, parents and other critical stakeholders, who regretted that such development was not only lamentable and worrisome, but also unacceptable.
Reacting to the development, the state wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers and the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools described the attacks and humiliation on teachers as not only alarming, but also grossly unfortunate.
The Chairman of the state chapter of NUT, Mr. Abiodun Akinola, however, blamed moral decadence and erosion of the value system in many homes for the attacks and problems in Ogun schools. He said: “It is greatly alarming. If the students that we teach now turn back to attack teachers, it is disturbing. And, it is never their fault; the problem is from the government. The reason is that a hungry man is an angry man; there are so many broken homes these days. “We are talking about a polluted society. Well, the parents have their blame and as teachers we also have our blame; there is no doubt about that.
There is no organisation that does not have its own bad eggs; we can’t completely say everybody in the teaching profession is perfect. “In fact, we know how to handle erring teachers, but what about the parents. You can imagine parents encouraging their wards and children to attack teachers teaching them, and they still have the guts to follow such children or wards to the schools to attack their teachers. What kind of future are they praying for such a child? Already, the future of such a child is already doomed through the action of their parents.
So, everybody has its own blame.” On his part, the Chairman of the state chapter of ASUSS, Akeem Lasisi, said: “Majority of our students lacked the sense of direction, the sense of purpose and the sense of fulfillment, and as a result they engage in social vices which led to social damage in our various schools. “This group of students have already been brainwashed with wrong misconceptions about the society that they cannot succeed in life without engaging in social vices.
The students do not believe in hard work and perseverance because they have accepted Yahoo Yahoo and other fraudulent or sharp practices, as well as allow such short cuts to direct them.” He, therefore, appealed to teachers to go about their duties without fear of molestation, saying “teachers should put away their fears and allow bygone to be bygone, while peace and tranquility will prevail in all our schools this term.”
Meanwhile, New Telegraph findings revealed that between March 2021 and January 2022, the state recorded no fewer than 10 incidents of invasion of schools by hoodlums hired by students and parents to assault teachers in different parts of the state. The teachers’ crime as discovered was that they are being attacked for rebuking erring or recalcitrant students or by trying to instill discipline in the children. Now, for teachers in Ogun State, the Biblical saying that “spare the rod to spoil the child,” no longer apply in the schools for fear of being publicly molested and attacked by the students.
More worrisome is that parents, who are supposed to join the teachers in instilling discipline in their children (students), are now the culprits, conniving with hoodlums and their children to assault teachers in the state’s schools. For instance, a 35-year-old man, Abidemi Oluwaseun led two hoodlums to Baptist Girls College, Idiaba in Abeokuta, the state capital, who assaulted a teacher for allegedly beating his 15-year-old daughter. The trio, armed with new cutlasses threatened to hack the teacher to death before they were arrested by officers of the state Police Command there on the school premises. In another incident, students of Community High School, Ijoun in Yewa North Local Government Area of the state allegedly hired hoodlums that invaded the school, where they attacked and drove their teachers away from the school.
This unfortunate incident came barely one week after the students of Unity High School, Kajola in Ibooro, the same local government area, reportedly stormed the school with hired thugs/hoodlums with dangerous weapons and unleashed terror and inflicted varying degrees of injury on the teachers in the process. During the attack, the assailants were said to have ‘freely used’ weapons such as machetes and axes on two teachers before fleeing the scene. Piqued by the development, stakeholders expressed regrets that the incidents since last year have continued unchecked as the state government and security agents seemed to be helpless to nip the menace in the bud. Disturbed by the situation and the urgent need to curtail the menace, the state government was however forced last term to shut down some secondary schools identified as being notorious for juvenile delinquency to curb criminal activities in the schools.
As part of the assaults, in March 2021, a suspected ‘serial killer,’ identified as Suleiman Ganiyu, was arrested by operatives of the state Police Command in Ijebu-Igbo area of the state for allegedly invading a public secondary school with a gun. The suspect, the police said, had stormed Itamerin Comprehensive High School, Ago-Iwoye and began to shoot sporadically, apparently to assault the teachers for allegedly beating his younger brother, who is a student of the school. Ganiyu, the police noted, is a member of the dreaded Eiye Cult group and had been on wanted list of the Command for a while, saying further that the suspect was wanted for the deaths of more than three rival cult group members in various cult clashes between 2015 and 2020 in the State.
In November last year, a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Obantoko Division in Adatan Area Command of Abeokuta, SP Alimeke Ignatius and his men were attacked by some rampaging students of two secondary schools – Egba Comprehensive High School and Asero High School in Asero area of the state capital, where the police officers were reportedly attacked during the clash between the schools.
The students of the two schools, it was learnt, had engaged in a bloody clash when men of the Obantoko Police Station were sent distress call to curtail the situation. But, the students, who hauled stones and other weapons, blocked the main road, causing tension among the residents of the area. Alimeke and some of his men, who ran to the scene of the incident to maintain law and order, were allegedly injured by the students, leaving the DPO with a severe injury on his head.
Narrating his ordeal to New Telegraph, Mr. Segun Odunsanya, a teacher in a public secondary school in Ewekoro Local Government Area, recalled how he was physically and spiritually attacked by one of his students. He said: “I was on the sick bed for almost three months following a spiritual attack by one of my students. Prior to the incident, I had been threatened and physically attacked by a group of students for rebuking them. “My crime was that I don’t always mind my business. I rebuke the students at any given opportunity. I was told that my chair was laced with a charm by one of my students, who felt I was too harsh on him.
“For almost two months, both my scrotum and stomach were swollen and I was in severe pain, if not for God, I would have died. “Since this incident, I have always been minding my business. I just go to class and teach, nothing more, nothing less.” To address the crisis and curtail criminal activities in schools, the state government ahead of resumption for second term in January mandated parents and guardians whose children are in public secondary schools across the state to sign an undertaking form, pledging that their wards would not be involved in violent activities. In enforcing the directive, the students on resumption for second term were directed by the school management to come with either their parents or guardians before they were allowed into their respective classes.
The Undertaking Form, according to the government, is one of the strategies put in place to tackle juvenile delinquencies in schools in the state. Meanwhile, the state government also declared war against unruly behaviour by students and parents attacking teachers, warning that any student caught in the act would be expelled and prosecuted along with their accomplices. The state Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, stated that the government would continue to frown at all forms or acts of indiscipline in the school system. Arigbabbu, however, noted that those that were caught previously had been arrested and charged to court accordingly, saying that the ministry would collaborate with law enforcement agencies such as the police,
Nigeria Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), So-Safe Corps and other security agencies towards ensuring that normalcy is restored in schools. Arigbabu said Governor Dapo Abiodun had been unrelenting in supporting principals and teachers in the discharge of their duties, urging parents and guardians to continually monitor and call their children to order.
The Commissioner warned: “The governor is really worried about the unruly behaviour and the trend in which hoodlums invade our schools to beat and attack our teachers, and he frowned at such acts of indiscipline. “Therefore, any students caught in such an act would be made to face the full wrath of the law alongside their accomplices. Ogun State is known for being the home of respectable and responsible citizens, and we will not allow any act that would tarnish our image in our schools.” Arigbabu pledged that the ministry would look into the immediate and remote causes of the unruly behaviour and find ways to tackle it, while admonishing teachers to give a good account of themselves at all times.
Besides, he charged parents that have complaints against any teacher to channel such grievances to the principals and the ministry, promising that such reports would be addressed accordingly. As part of moves to curb the crisis, Arigbabu also threatened to sanction owners of private schools that are admitting students expelled from public schools for assaulting teachers, even as the Commissioner insisted that the state government would not hesitate to “name and shame” any student culpable or found engaging in violence activities in schools.
The Commissioner, who attributed this misbehaviour to bad parenting, social media, peer group influence, wrong role models and economic situations, also blamed lack of unqualified and unwilling teachers not using the right approach, shortage of teachers, sexual promiscuity, moral laxity, craze for easy wealth, procrastination, low selfesteem, congestion of classes, security, dual registration and ineffective communication between teachers and learners for the challenges.
Arigbabu said the ministry would hold a series of meetings with security agencies, principals and heads of schools, Parents Teachers Associations (PTAs) and other stakeholders in order to form effective alliances against vices and juvenile delinquencies in schools.
But, despite the state government’s threat, assaults on teachers have persisted. A secondary school student, Joshua Joseph and his mother, last Tuesday, allegedly hired some thugs, who assaulted some teachers of Toyon High School, Ere in Ado-Odo area of the state. Joseph, the mother and the hired thugs were said to have stormed the school, located in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of the state and descended heavily on no fewer than three teachers, inflicting various degrees of injuries on them in the process. New Telegraph learnt that the management of the school had earlier prevented Joseph from entering the class because of his hairstyle.
A teacher, simply identified as Kabir Azeez, had told the student to go and cut his hair before entering the classroom. But, Joshua was said to have returned to the school with his mother and a thug, who violently attacked the teachers and unleashed mayhem on them. To serve as a deterrent to other would-be student-criminals and their accomplices, the suspects were said to have been arrested and charged to court by the police
(New Telegraph)
