The ugly incident that followed the 2022 West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) at the Sonyindo Community High School (Senior) will remain indelible in the minds of some students of the school located in Sagamu, Ogun State.
The female Principal of the school was reported to have instructed and forced male and female students of the school who wrote the 2022 WASSCE to remove their blouses and shirts in the full glare of teachers.
However, the motive which was not immediately known to the students and teachers caught them wondering and unaware as the male and female students without underwear had their chests bare as the staff of the school watched the antics of the principal in amazement.
Sources said the Sonyindo Community High School Senior, Principal explained that the shirts and blouse were meant for other indigent students at the school.
Though the last paper by final year students is traditionally celebrated as school friends scribble farewell messages on each other’s uniforms. Some students even tear the sleeves off their shirts.
However, a male student dismissed the notion and described the incident as horrible and barbaric.
He lamented that some of his female colleagues who were not wearing underwear were left bare to the amazement of teachers as the Principal shunned all entreaties not to go ahead with the demand on the students.
The male student said it took the intervention of the estranged Principal’s husband, a civil servant in the Ogun State Service before the traumatised students were allowed to dress up.
He added, “Our seniors did witness this type of abomination and disgrace meted to us by the Principal. It was horrible seeing some of our female colleagues naked”.
A parent, who preferred anonymity, expressed doubts about the sanity of the estranged Principal as she appealed to the Ogun State Ministry of Education for a probe and intervention.
“Corporal punishment that has been outlawed has become the order of the day at the school. Teachers in the school often punish students by asking them to sit in the sun. The head of the school is also aggressive and violent beating students and making them work on farmlands. This is not acceptable,” he added.
