The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as “expensive political gimmickry” the decision of the Edo government to suspend indefinitely the resumption date for schools in the state over the hike in the price of fuel.

The permanent secretary in the state ministry of education, Ojo Akin-Longe, via a memo, announced the postponement of Sept.9, the earlier scheduled date until further notice.

Peter Uwadiae-Enosorogbe, publicity secretary of APC, told journalists that the action of the state government was a political gimmick less expected by the public.

Mr Uwadiae-Enosorogbe said he was surprised that the state government could be sacrificing the educational pursuit of the children for politics.

“You cannot sacrifice the education pursuit of the children for fuel scarcity. It is not today we are having a hike in fuel price. This cannot derail the educational system.

“Nobody is protesting the hike, and no parents have complained that they cannot take their children to school to learn. This is not adding up.

“To every reasonable and rational individual, the government has erred again. It is one of the mistakes of the state government.

“It is not in the interest of the children; it is not in the interest of the parents and it is not in the interest of the educational system,” he said.

Mr Uwadiae-Enosorogbe called for the reversal of the decision, saying that state education had suffered a lot under this administration.

According to him, the statistics of performance for the recently released results of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) ranked Edo 26th against 1st and 2nd positions in the past.

“If you now postpone resumption, how are you going to mitigate the time you have made them stay at home deliberately? Meanwhile, the parents are not complaining,” the APC spokesperson said.

He called on the stakeholders to prevail on the government to open the school, adding that it was illogical for the government to keep children at home whose parents had paid school fees and bought textbooks.

“The children are eager to go back to classes to learn. So the government should not use political gimmickry to checkmate them.

“Edo government should be talked to because the action is an aberration; the action is uncalled for; the action is not in the interest of anybody,” he said.

(NAN)