Ekiti school where students are forced to work on teachers’ farms during school hours

Ekiti school where students are forced to work on teachers’ farms during school hours

Posted By: ABIODUN NEJOon: March 17, 2016In: EducationNo Comments

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For most teachers in Elo High School, Ayetoro-Ekiti in the Ido/Osi Council area of Ekiti State, life is so sweet with bountiful harvest in their private farms every year at no cost. The teachers capitalised on their position to engage their students in free labour at their private farms handling every aspect of farming for them beginning from cultivation of land to planting, weeding, harvesting and even selling. And this, the teachers do during school hours taking the pupils to their private farms at least twice a week to work for a minimum of 30 minutes. But the bubbles burst recently when some aggrieved parents, who have tolerated the abuse over the years, lodged a protest against the school. Now, the state governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has waded in with a promise to bring to justice any teacher involved in the scam. To start with, the governor instructed his deputy, Dr Kolapo Olusola and Commissioner for Education, Mr. Jide Egunjobi, to carry out a preliminary investigation into the complaint.
This was to open the can of worms at the institution as the investigating team caught the teachers red-handed as they met the students working in their private farms during school hours. A member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) posted to the school, Miss Giredana Enogha, said when she got to the school in June last year, the situation was like a farm settlement. The corps member said: “We resumed in June and we (corpers) wondered why the school was like that, we were surprised at why students go to farm almost every day. “It was more of a farming place, even when we are teaching, they do come to call some students for use in the farm, when you tell them what you are teaching is important and all that, they will still insist that the students go to the farm. “During examinations, the students will have to first go to farm before they come and sit for their papers. That was the situation till the arrival of this new principal in January 2016,” the NYSC member said. According to her, students are not encouraged to do any other thing than to go to farm all day. The students also related their experiences in the hands of the teachers, saying each of them worked in the teachers’ private farms for not less than an hour every week. A Junior Secondary School (JSS) 3 student said though the school had a farm where students were expected to work once a week, some teachers capitalised on that to take them to their private farms to weed and make heaps.
Another JSS 3 student, a 13-year-old, narrated how farming activities had taken over academics in their school, saying: “The teachers usually tell us to drop our bags as soon as we get to school in the morning, to come and help them on their farmlands and when we get there, it may take up to 30 minutes to do the work, and after doing it, another teacher can call us to come and help them do another work and we can’t say no because if you say no, you will be punished. “Like yesterday (Monday) when the commissioner came to the school, I have worked thrice at different places, we were told to make heaps, like 70 heaps per person all over the school and then, I later went to Mrs. Onibon’s farm to weed, then to Mr. Awopetu’s farm to make heaps and I can’t ignore their request,” the student who doesn’t want his name in print, said. A JSS 2 student, who also spoke to journalists, corroborated the narrations of the JSS 3 students. An angry governor, on receipt of the preliminary report of the deputy governor’s team, suspended no fewer than 16 of the affected teachers pending the outcome of full investigations of the matter. The governor ordered that the probe should be extended to teachers who had taught in the school since 2012 and that a former principal of the school who was transferred to a secondary school at Ilasa Ekiti about three months ago should be probed as well over the matter. Fayose, who warned that indicted teachers would definitely face the music, also ordered that at least 80 per cent of the teachers be transferred from that school. “This is sheer slavery,” he said, “The teachers mentioned must be suspended immediately. The principal, who just got there two months ago, is exempted, but the former principal, who has been posted out must be investigated as well. “And any of them found culpable will have him or herself to blame . They will not go unpunished because this is slavery. Students cannot be taking to private farms under the guise of doing agricultural practical,” he said. He also cautioned that anyone who tries to harass or intimidate the students would face criminal prosecution for such action and directed that the students be adequately protected by relevant authorities.