The Ebonyi State Government has on Tuesday announced the demotion of three senior secondary school principals and the seizure of the December salaries of 10 teachers for alleged dereliction of duties.

The Executive Chairman of the State Secondary Education Board, Dr Uchechukwu Anyim, who disclosed this to journalists in Abakaliki, said the punishment of the affected workers would serve as deterrent to others.

Anyim said the nonchalant attitude of some principals and teachers in the state had affected the state’s educational programmes.

She said, “The said principals, three of them in number, during the just concluded first term examination were nonchalant towards their duties.

“During our monitoring, we found that some of them were not complying with the rules and regulations guiding the examination.”

She said the principals gave flimsy excuses for their dereliction of duty and could not explain why a teacher was not in school for two weeks.

“Therefore, we decided to take this drastic measure on them,” she added, pointing out that 10 errant teachers would lose their December salaries