The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has insisted that any principal of government schools in Abuja, whose students fail to record 50 per cent success in 2017 WASSC and NECO exams, would be sacked.
It said such principal, however, had an option to honourably resign from his orher post.
Speaking at a meeting with school principals in the territory, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Musa Bello, insisted that the 30 per cent success recorded in 2016 WAEC and NECO in FCT schools was no longer acceptable.
Bello, who was represented at the meeting by the FCT Permanent Secretary, Dr Babatope Ajakaiye, went further to insist that students must achieve at least 50 per cent in the next exams or principals of affected schools be penalised.
The minister warned that the FCT administration would no longer accept excuses of poor infrastructure or inadequate teachers being given as reasons for the poor performance, insisting that school principals must do everything possible to ensure that the situation changed.
He said that it was unthinkable that the FCT, with the largest concentration of elite and which should be setting the pace for other states in terms of academic performance, was churning out mere 30 per cent success in very critical examinations as WAEC and NECO.
“The mandate I will give you that goes with sanction is this: for this new session, every principal must be determined to achieve 50 per cent success in WAEC and NECO in 2017. Any principal that does not achieve 50 per cent success should just quietly leave that school because the principal is going to be removed. If you don’t achieve 50 per cent success in WAEC and NECO in 2017, you are no longer fit to be a principal in FCT and I mean it. That is the minimum that we want for every school and you must work towards it,” he told the principals.
He went further to say: ”We cannot be gathering students and at the end of their final year, all they will have is three credits. I don’t know whether you are proud as a principal that in your school, the success rate is five per cent.
“I want principals that will be determined to say ‘in my school, things must change, infrastructure or no infrastructure, resources or no resources, I want to put myself as a sacrifice and change things.’
“That is what I want to do before I leave the service. I want to be known to have done something good for Nigeria
“My mission is not to come and make you sad, but the situation is bad and you know it and we are ready to tackle it. But you must be up and doing too and that is why I said I must call all the principals and talk to you to do the right things. That is what this administration is about.”