Ogun State Government has read the riot act to students and management of schools over what it described as the prevalent rate of juvenile delinquencies and other anti-social behaviours by students across the State. 

Commissioner for Education, Prof. Abayomi Arigbagbu, made this known at a press briefing on Tuedsay, in Abeokuta. He said the State Government will sanction owners of private schools in the state that admit any student expelled from public schools. 

He also said Government will name and shame any culpable pupils at the school, Zonal and State levels, when found wanting. He said Ogun State capital has already fine-tuned the strategies mapped out to tackle juvenile delinquencies in schools.

Arigbagbu said this move was necessitated by the series of crimes recently committed by pupils in public schools in the State, whose high point led to the abrupt closure of some schools last year.

He said the reason for the press briefing was to roll out the Government’s strategies to tackle juvenile delinquencies and recent social vices in public schools in the State. He said the Government would not only announce erring students publicly, to serve as a deterrent to others, but will also reward and award best-behaved pupils who make their marks in academics and character.

He said the State Government had to be proactive in order to nip the challenge in bud before it degenerates further. He said bad parenting, social media, peer group, wrong role models as well as the economic situation in the Country are fuelling anti-social behaviours among pupils and students nationwide, with Ogun not being an exception. 

The Commissioner also decried the prevalence of unqualified and unwilling teachers in the system. He said these misfits are not using the right approach to teaching in the first place. 

"Shortage of teachers, sexual promiscuity, moral laxity, the craze for easy wealth, procrastination, low self-esteem, congestion of classes, security, dual registration and ineffective communication between teachers and learners to the challenges", he said. 

He also said the Ministry of Education will continue to liaise with Security Agencies, Principals and Heads of Schools, Parents and Teachers Associations and others, to form effective alliances against these cancerous vices in schools. 

"We are taking very serious steps against crimes and criminality in both public and private schools and private school owners should co-operate with us in this fight. We are the ones that give licences to all the private schools and if any of them flout our directives, we can easily have their licences withdrawn.

“There will be naming and shaming such pupils that engage in crimes and juvenile delinquencies in our schools across the State. That will be done at school, zonal and state levels. We are also going to involve our pupils and engage in all sorts of extra-curricular activities to discourage the pupils from juvenile delinquencies.

“Students expelled should not be admitted into any public or private school in Ogun State, that is something that will be very difficult and that is why we put in place what we call the Learner Identification number.

“The E-platform we are using now will make it difficult for dual registration. Once you are in a school and you misbehave and you are sent away, it will be very difficult to get into another school in Ogun but, some of them will want to get into schools, and that is why we are meeting private school owners tomorrow, for them, we are going to put sanctions because we are the one that gave them operating licence if some of these schools flout some of these regulations we can withdraw their licence.

“All of us have to be on the same page because if we expel a student from a school it would have been the last resort and we don’t want a situation where the expulsion won’t be effective", the Commissioner said. 

He also announced that an immediate ban on students bringing and using phones and personal electronic devices in schools.

“On the issue of phones in school, what we ordinarily advised is that it will actually distract the students. Teachers will be teaching them and some people will be looking at phones and going to different sites to do nonsense. 

"That is why it is not encouraged for students to bring phones to class. If they have phones, they can actually put it in their bags and at the close of the day, they can bring it out. But how do we know they don’t bring it out. That is why teachers need to monitor them to ensure that they don’t bring phones to classes", he added.

He alao said phones have their peculiar advantages and disadvantages in a school environment, expecially in the areas of safety and security. He therefore urged teachers and school managers to be proactive in dealing with that particular issue in an efficient manner. 

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