There was pandemonium at the Government Secondary School Owerri yesterday Thursday 3rd, October, 2013 as students were forced to go back home by the school authority for what was termed making the premises available for transferring students aptitude test.
The students who were seen running helter scelter in and around the school as teachers were chasing them out of the school compound, complained of the school authority shoting down the school for the day when the students had spent transport fare with parents believing that their kids have gone to school. The students also complained of incessant closure of schools under flimsy excuses by school authority and government since the administration of Owelle Rochas Okorocha. Some who spoke on condition of anonymity queried the free Education policy if it is intended to make teachers slaves to the whims and caprices of the Rochas administration? “Oga since this government, everyday they will close school after we have left our homes to attend classes. They will say the governor called teachers at Hero Square or stadium for one reason or the other. I beg, if this is what free education is all about, let us pay and have classes” the students lamented.
Attempt to get the principal, Mr Obiyor did not yield result as he was said to be busy. However, it was reliably gathered that the school management decided to close down the school for the day, to enable them conduct aptitude test for students wishing to transfer to Government College from other schools within and outside the state.
One of the parents who came to drop his kids to school but was turned back lamented that the idea was wrong as it exposes the students to risks and unnecessary hardship. He wondered why they did not announce it in the school the previous day that they should not come to school, to save the parents expenses and to enable them engage their children meaningfully at home.
It will be recalled that since the inception of the present administration and their free education policy, the schools in Imo state have been experiencing incessant and meaningless closures and parents and students have complained bitterly as Rochas Foundation College the private institution of the Governor do not experience such closure, some students lamented.
