Students facing demands for sex or money for examination grades by their teachers have been advised to make reports to the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
This advice was given by Chief Superintendent and Head Public Enlightenment Unit, ICPC Imo State office, Chinwe Nwozor, at the inauguration of a Students Anti- Corruption Club in Sacred Heart Secondary School, Akwakuma, Imo State.
While delivering a speech on: “The importance of Anti-corruption Club in Secondary Schools”, Nwozor said Section 19 of the ICPC law forbids public officers from abusing their office to confer unfair advantage on themselves, which is what sexual demands or extortion for marks by teachers amounts to. She added that “a corrupt society holds no future for its youth as there will be no sound education and no gainful employment,” while noting that corruption retards societal development and brings about frustration in the youths, as it promotes only poverty with no future and no means of livelihood for its victims.
Speaking further, Nwozor said “corruption is responsible for the inadequate funding of schools’ laboratories and the near collapse of public schools”. She appealed to the students to stand up against corrupt practices even when these acts involve their friends.
Nwozor assured the students that ICPC would give adequate protection to members of the club against possible victimization by teachers, school management or fellow students. She then enjoined the students to avoid acts such as fighting, stealing, cheating, drug abuse, exam malpractice, cultism, bribery, sexual harassment etc.
In her remarks, the Principal of Sacred Heart Secondary School, Mrs Osuji Glad-Joans, expressed gratitude to the Commission for its wonderful initiative of actively engaging students and pupils in the fight against corruption by inculcating sound moral values in them and also building integrity into the schools system.
The highpoint of the occasion was the formal inauguration of the clubs with the students and their club adviser pledging to say NO to corruption and violence, and to promote freedom, justice and peace in the school.