There was confusion in Olora Areaof Adebayo community in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, on Thursday, as students of Anglican High School in the area went on the rampage to protest the directive that they should repeat a class.The students were reportedly angered by the announcement of their repeat of the SS2 class towards the end of the first term of their SS3 class, thereby seeing it as a demotion.Eleven of the students were arrested by men of the state police command from the Oke Ila division that were drafted to quell the riot while the school had been shut following the development.During the protest, the students smashed the windscreen of a Toyota Hilux van belonging to the police while the principal of the school, Mr Joel Akinola, said he was held hostage for about an hour by the students before the police arrived.Akinola blamed the SS3 students of the school for the problem, saying they were the masterminds of the riot.The protest was said to have started at about 8.30 a.m. after the principal announced what appeared as mass failure of the students in the unified mock examination conducted by the state Ministry of Education, during the day's morning assembly.Some of the students were arrested by the police and driven away to the police station.The state Ministry of Education, it was gathered, had directed that those who performed poorly in the examinations conducted when the students were in SS2 should not be registered for the external examinations since the state government would pay for the examinations.It was also gathered that the directive came from the ministry after the schools had concluded promotions and registered the students for the external examination.When newsmen visited the school, six police vans that brought officers and men of the force, led by the Divisional Police Officer of Oke Ila division, Mr. Segun Atanda, were seen littering porous school compound while those arrested were taken away in one of the vans.Atanda said when they responded to a call by the principal, the students stoned them and smashed the rear windscreen of one of their patrol vans, adding that they had to use tear gas when the situation became more than they had thought of the students.The Commissioner for Education, Dr Eniola Ajayi, in reaction said the development was unfortunate, saying the unified promotion examination was 'the yardstick used in promoting the SS2 students.'According to her, 'before the examination, we had set a standard that all students must make three credits and three passes before they can be promoted and out of the credits, English and Mathematics must be included.
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