Our correspondent gathered that the clerics went to St. Charles’ High School and Ife Oluwa Middle School early in the morning with the aim of enforcing the use of hijab but the teachers explained to them that they would allow the pupils to wear hijab after they must have received a directive from the Ministry of Education to allow them to do so.
The calm manner the principals in the schools attended to the Muslims was said to have prevented any untoward incident.
One of the principals of St. Charles’ High School, Mr. Anthony Famoriyo, when contacted in his office, confirmed that some Muslim clerics came to the school but he explained to them that he had not received any memo to that effect from the state government.
Famoriyo said the people left but promised to come back in full force.
He said, “ Some Muslims came this morning and said they wanted to enforce the use of hijab. We explained to them that we will allow our students to wear hijab whenever we get instruction from the state government to do so.
“You know that everything we do in schools follows procedure, what you teach, the way you teach. We are not against any group. We are here to teach our children and that is our mission.”
There was calm in the school when journalists visited and some students drawn from many schools were seen on the field holding calisthenics rehearsal.
Some of these students wore hijab.
Some officials of the Nigeria Seurity and Civil Defence Corps deployed in the school also told journalists that there was no crisis in the school contrary to the rumour in some quarters.
Some hours after that, Governor Rauf Aregbesola, while speaking at a roundtable on developing collaborative framework for education organised by the Development and Advancement in Western Nigeria, said he had not ordered the use of hijab in public schools in the state.
The governor said contrary to reports in the media, the education sector in the state was not in any crisis.
He described the media focus on wearing of church garments to Baptist High School, Iwo by some students as a “celebration of idiocy,” saying the media overlooked the inauguration of a school by his government in Ibokun and focused on the ‘misguided students.’
He said, “ Let me say this there is no official pronouncement on hijab. I have not ordered the use of hijab in schools and I challenge them to bring evidence.
“It might interest you that my wife does not use hijab, my daughter does not use hijab. So, I did not order the use of hijab. My view on Islam is why I am suffering unmerited persecution. My crime is that I struggle to be a good Muslim and not because I hurt anybody.”
Aregbesola said it was wrong for any religious body to still claim the ownership of any public school in the state, saying government took over the schools about 41 years ago.
He also stated that Muslim-founded schools were not merged with schools established by Christian missionaries.
He explained that students of St. Mary; St. Anthony and United Methodist were merged with their counterparts at Baptist High School, Iwo.
According to him, just four students of St. Mary, who were using hijab in their former school and were prevented from not using it when they were transferred to Baptist High School, started the hijab crisis in 2012.
Speaking on the topic, he said students in the South-West would perform better if teachers used Yoruba language to teach them.
The Director-General of DAWN, Dr. Charles Akinola, said all the South-West states were together in the efforts to reposition education in the geo-political zone.
He said the objective of the roundtable was to fashion out ways of revamping education in the South-West and restore the lost glory.
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