Oyo State government has threatened to sanction school principals of recently delisted schools by the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) for examination malpractices in the state.

The commissioner for education, science and technology, Barr. Abiodun Abdu-Raheem, who disclosed this said the state government would sanction both the principals and parents found wanting because of its zero tolerance for examination malpractice.

He also warned principals to desist from encouraging examination malpractice which was becoming endemic in both the private and public schools in the state.

"It should be noted that, the Oyo State government has zero tolerance for examination malpractices, therefore, principals and teachers of both private and public schools and parents were earlier warned to desist from any act of collaboration on examination malpractices, as sanctions would be meted to concerned staff and parents", he assured.

Abiodun disclosed that only the West African Examination Council (WAEC) had the authority to release a list of schools that were identified to be involved in examination malpractices and de-recognise such schools accordingly.

He disclosed that derecognised schools would not be permitted to present candidates for WAEC for a period of two years, saying "however, this does not debar students of such schools from sitting for the West African Examination Certificate (WAEC), as they were mobilised to the nearest school to write the WAEC; only the identified school was derecognized as a WAEC Centre.

"It should be noted that the government of Oyo State will waste no time to investigate any such occurrence, while the necessary punishments as enumerated above will be meted to anyone found guilty", he added.

The commissioner, however, advised heads of both public and private institutions in the state to desist from any act that could ridicule their schools and portray the image of the state in bad light.