Fakunle High School
Alumni, parents and other education stakeholders in Osun State have begun to remove items they donated to Fakunle Comprehensive High School in Oshogbo, following allegations Governor Rauf Aregbesola plans to demolish the school and replace it with a “Shop Rite” mall.
They allege there has been a long battle with the Aregbesola administration over the plan, saying that the governor is serving the interests of his political god-father, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to provide prime space for him to extend Shop Rite, a business he is said to own, to Oshogbo.
An alumnus of the school confirmed that Mr. Tinubu’s interest is what is behind the troubles.
“Of all locations in Osun State, only the center that Fakunle High school proudly sits on since over fifty years is what Tinubu wants. Why not develop other areas to stand his business?” alleged the Alumnus.
In February, there were pockets of protest by senior students of the school asking Mr. Aregbesola to change his mind on the alleged plan. However, Osun State Government officials subsequently denied the plan on television, as a result of which normal activities resumed in the school.
But the crisis soon resurfaced as the State Government through its education department sent out transfer letters to teachers of the school and released a list by which it distributed the students of Fakunle High School to other schools. By the new list, some of the students now have to cover more distances to learn.
“There are only few schools in Oshogbo. Instead of Ogbeni Aregbe (Mr. Aregbesola) to create new schools and renovate old ones, he is demolishing existing ones to please some few interests,” one parent said.
“Why will anybody want to convert place of a learning only to create a parking space or mall, when he should create more schools?” asked one parent who spoke in confidence to SaharaReporters.
Occupying about space about one kilometer long, Fakunle High School is said to have been established by Reverend Pa. Ade Fakunle in 1956, and has produced persons of high status in the State. In 1975, the Osun State Government took the school over from the missionaries.
Since information leaked that the administration of Governor Aregbesola intends to demolish the school, stakeholders have been mounting pressure on the governor to reverse the alleged decision.
In a related development, other missionary schools in the State have threatened to shut their gates in protest if the government goes ahead with the decision, prompting the government to shift resumption of all schools by two weeks to enable it re-work the idea.
An official at the education department refused to comment on the allegation that the school would be converted to a shopping mall, but confirmed that teachers were being posted across schools in the state in line with a “reclassification of schools” model by the government. The students have also been planned for distribution to other schools.
The official said that the government was carrying out a reform in education by which schools in the state are now categorized into three phases of Basic, Middle and Senior Schools respectively. According to the plan, pupils from Primary one to four are in the Elementary School; those from primary five to six as well as junior students from JSS one to three are now said to be in the Middle School, while students from SSS one to three are in the Senior or High School.
One teacher told our correspondent that the new reform means there are now only three ‘High Schools’ in the entire Oshogbo, and only one in Ede, another town in Osun State.
The teacher confirmed that they all have now been transferred out of the School and the students distributed to other schools.
He said all teachers and students will resume in Oshogbo Grammar School, where their various new schools will be announced to them. But Fakunle High School will no longer exist, as the students have been shared to other schools.
It is this development that has led parents, alumni and other stakeholders to begin the removal of roofing sheets and other items which they said they had donated to the school.
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