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St Joseph’s vocational school Mbarara closed after students’ strike
What you need to know:
- In the past one month, at least 29 schools have witnessed student strikes, leading to the closure of about eight of them.
Police on Saturday evening closed St Joseph’s Vocational School in Mbarara City following a students’ strike over their disqualification from a football contest.
The students had earlier gone to compete in a football match against Nyamitanga Secondary School in the ongoing Coca-cola Post Primaries in the greater Mbarara region.
“The headmaster indirectly made our school to be disqualified because he does not like us to engage in sports. Some of our colleagues actually cried because they had practiced quite a lot for this match only to be told they cannot play,” one of the senior students said.
He added: “We were dying to play our opponents because they beat us before but all our hopes were crashed by the headmaster’s assumption that he was helping by getting us disqualified.”
The students accused their head teacher, Rev. Fr Godwin Muhangi, of conspiring with the referees after they were allegedly delayed on assembly.
“We were told to go to the playground in Kakiika at 9am after holding an assembly, however, on arrival we got information that we were disqualified for arriving late because the match was supposed to start at 8am,” another senior student at the school said.
He added: “We found the team we were meant to play with to qualify to semi-finals already playing. That is when we knew it was the plan by the headmaster because he has been sabotaging almost all the sports activities, including basketball.”
One of the parents we found picking his child blamed the school administration for allowing students reach the level of demonstrating.
READ: Ombaci college closed over strike
“I am an old boy of this school but issues like these should not fail the administration. It can do better, I am so disappointed I must say,” he said.
However, other students accused police of escalating the strike after officers allegedly fired bullets to disperse students who had gone to meet the archbishop of Mbarara.
“The problem escalated when the police came and wanted to beat us again, yet we were already in school. They had already chased us from the Archdiocese where we had gone to tell the Archbishop that we no longer want the head teacher,” another student said.
With the help of police, the head teacher suspended all the students to allow investigations into the matter to start.
“The school has been temporarily closed until further notice due to the strike where school structures were damaged. Students were demanding to meet the archbishop which was not possible and they became unruly and damaged school property,” Rwizi region police spokesperson, Samson Kasasira said.
The Rev.Fr Muhangi said he did not want to comment on the matter since it is being investigated by police.
“The matter is before the courts of law and the police so, I cannot comment right now,“he said.
In the past one month, at least 29 schools have witnessed student strikes, leading to the closure of about eight of them.
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