The Ondo State Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) has dismissed reports alleging that public secondary schools in the state conduct blood tests on prospective students before admission.

TESCOM Chairman, Dr. Mrs. Oluwadaisi Oke, described the report as false and urged parents to disregard the information being circulated on social media.

Oke, in a statement, said blood tests had never been conducted within the premises of any public secondary school in the state as part of the admission process.

According to her, it has been an age-long practice for parents of newly admitted Junior Secondary School One (JSS1) students to voluntarily provide information about the health conditions of their children in their admission files.

She said, “No personnel of the public secondary school in Ondo State engaged in such a despicable act.”

The TESCOM chairman explained that where health or blood tests were required, parents were responsible for taking their children to recognised and government-approved health facilities, whether public or private, and providing the relevant information on the official admission documents.

“Such health/blood tests were never done in any public secondary school in the state but in a recognised and government-approved health facility,” she said.

Oke further stated that the government had not authorised any TESCOM personnel to conduct blood tests on students within public secondary school premises.

She said findings from the commission’s investigation showed that parents voluntarily provided information about their children’s health status and took them to various health facilities for necessary tests before filling the relevant sections of the admission documents.

The commission also urged media practitioners and social media bloggers to verify information before publishing or sharing reports capable of misleading members of the public.

“Education of children is a collective effort that must be jointly done by the government and concerned citizens,” Oke said.

She advised parents to always verify information concerning the operations of TESCOM personnel to avoid being misled by unverified reports circulating on social media.

The commission also appealed to individuals it described as “detractors and commercial social media agents” to desist from spreading alarms capable of disrupting the education of children in the state.