We never witnessed any attack over exams

REPORTS have appeared in the two daily newspapers claiming that school properties were destroyed after students had found out that fake answer sheets were sold to them, and that police were called for their assistance.
We, the teachers here, have been supervising the exams from day one to the end with teachers from Benabena secondary schools (for both grade 10 and 12) and we did not see any incident of this kind as reported.
The report was totally false designed to defame the school, teachers and the site leaders and the school in general here.
Weeks before the exams, the principal and deputies have warned both teachers and students that should such cheating or assisting in cheating occur, painful actions would be taken on both students and teachers and everyone was not even thinking about it. It was totally discouraged.
If cheating were done, students may have memorised the answers and sat for the examinations.
And if cheating was done, how did the questions and answers come out?
That is for the Education Department to answer.
However, we made sure nothing was smuggled in. We checked everything from biros, to calculators to even checking their pants.
As far as cheating is concerned, it did not happen.
Asaroka Lutheran Secondary School has more than 2600 students but they are among the good and disciplined students who respect and obey teachers’ instructions and take care of school properties.
When students damage school properties, we withhold their certificates and they pay for the damages done.
In this case reported, we would have done this but we have no record of such events.
The provincial police commander has made contradictory comments in his reports.
None of us teachers have been approached for further corroborating questions or evidences by police.
As such, we wish to mention that such reporting and comments should be carefully investigated and verified before quickly running to the newspapers to be published.
This particular report has defamed lots of parents whose students attend Asaroka Lutheran Secondary school, the teachers, grade 10 and 12 and whole of EHP.
The PPC should apologise as his source of information or reporting is false.
The school’s principal never called for his assistance and such incident never occurred.
To some people it would seem nice to report to show that you are doing your job, but it would be helpful if proper investigations are done before rushing to the press.
We feel we cannot be quiet over an issue that really did not happen and just demand an apology or correction.

Naiko Apo, Via email