The written phase of this year’s First School Leaving Certificate, FSLC, examination came to an abortive end yesterday in Mbingo. The exam which began on Tuesday, June 29, and was supposed to end Wednesday, 30 ended prematurely.
This exam was being written in the CBC-run primary school inside the Mbingo Baptist Hospital. As the exam was gradually grinding to its final halt yesterday, three armed men, allegedly from the separatists’ dreaded camp at Aboh surreptitiously visited the examination center and brought the exam to an unexpected stop.
Mr. Ndosak Christopher, the Headmaster of the school and Chief of the examination center, and his team of invigilators were subjugated to the demands of the furious separatists including questioning and intimidation. Their phones were collected and a thorough search carried out in the office. All the exam scripts written on Tuesday and Wednesday were collected. The scripts of the candidates who were still writing were also collected by the armed men and transported on their motorbikes.
This was after all attempts to negotiate had failed. The gunmen then dispersed the teachers and the candidates back home and left back to Aboh with the scripts. All this went on hitch-free because there were no forces of law and order to guard the examination center. Many have described it as an unfortunate outcome for the innocent children of Belo Subdivision who struggled to have their basic education certificate.
