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KAMPALA - An extremely livid parent has petitioned court after Genesis Nursery and Primary School in Kampala, allegedly acted ‘maliciously’ and took his daughter to sit Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) in a rural Nakaseke district school, without informing him.

Court documents filed at the Civil Division of the High Court in Kampala on April 2, 2024, show that Isabella Bahati Ndabateze (a minor) has sued the school through her legal next friend (father) Robert Ndabateze.

Isabella was taken to Kasagga Primary School in Nakaseke, where she sat PLE.

The case was filed through Kampala-based Bluebell Legal Advocates 
Jennifer Violet Wangolo, the proprietor of Genesis Nursery and Primary School, in the suburb of Mutungo, was sued over allegedly transferring Isabella to Kasagga Primary School, Nakaseke.

The school is accused of engaging in a fraudulent scheme, document falsification, misrepresentation, and deliberate negligence, among others.

Court documents contain a certificate for the 2023 PLE indicating that Isabella sat at Kasagga Primary School, Nakaseke.

Her father says he was in total disbelief when he was given results from a school very alien to him.

“Shockingly, when the results came out, her Primary Leaving [Education eaxaminations] certificate bore a different name of a school, Kasagga Primary School, P.O. Box 104, Nakaseke, located in Nakaseke district,” Ndabateze says.

“The 1st Plaintiff (father) never consented to the change in school nor did the school inform him about the fact that his daughter would sit PLE in another school, far away in Nakaseke district, different from the one that was known to him,”

The father emphasises from the get-go, at the time of registration, he registered his daughter at Genesis Primary School, on the UNEB  registration forms, and not any other school.

He says on all school days, he dropped his other children at the same school but was never informed about re-registration of Isabella with another school.

Ndabateze says even when the exams were concluded, the change was kept secret, and was confronted by the reality of insincerity when he went to pick Isabella’s results.

He laments that the defendants deliberately acted selfishly, which has disoriented his daughter and exposed a blatant disregard for contract honour.

“As a result, the actions of the school have caused emotional distress or mental harm which include anguish, humiliation, discrimination, torment, anxiety, low self-esteem, and depression to the 2nd Plaintiff, having to sit her exams in a strange environment that is unknown to her which led to her poor performance,” states Ndabateze.

“The actions by the school were illegal and in breach of their obligations with the 1st Plaintiff to have his daughter sit her exams at the school he was paying fees to and entered into a contract with to educate his daughter.

Justification

Ndabateze makes justification of the suit, with emphasis on alleged wrongdoing.

On fraud, the defendant is accused of dishonesty when it concealed information that it was going to re-register Isabella in another school different from the one known to both Isabella and her father.

Dishonesty was purportedly exhibited when the school did not seek the father’s consent before registering the daughter in another school.

Ndabateze says glaring fraud was shown in the issuing of the PLE certificate in the names of Kasagga Primary School in Nakaseke instead of Genesis Nursery and Primary School.

The complainant says negligence was shown by failure to notify him about the transfer of his daughter to a different environment, which consequently affected the emotional needs of the minor.

The school failed to take logical precautions to protect the minor from foreseeable risks, such as physical, mental, and emotional harm when she was transferred to a suitably strange environment where she knew no one, to take her exams, which negatively impacted her performance.

For misrepresentation, Ndabateze says it was a testament when the school deliberately concealed itself to tell Isabella that she would sit her examinations at Kasagga Primary School.

Another particular misrepresentation is the PLE certificate issued by the defendant bears different credentials of Kasagga Primary School instead of Genesis Primary School.

“The Plaintiffs aver that they have suffered mental harm and emotional distress that has significantly impacted their daily lives, causing them anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, and loss of enjoyment of life as a result of the afore-mentioned actions by the Defendant,” the plaint states.

Genesis Primary School is yet to file its response to the allegations.