Arua school on the spot over nonpayment of salaries

ARUA | EDUCATION | ST. LEO | NON PAYMENT

Classes at St. Leo Nursery and Primary School in Arua city were paralyzed on November 14, 2022, following a strike by some teachers of the school.

The 36 teachers staged a strike after the management of St Leo School hired new teachers from Kampala to replace them with immediate effect.

The teachers protested the non-payment of their salaries from September to date and said that a series of meetings with the management reportedly failed to yield any fruit.

The striking teachers and the management of the school spent a good part of yesterday at Arua Central Police Station trying to resolve the standoff after the management allegedly deployed the police to arrest any of the teachers who laid down their tools.

The strike paralyzed learning at the school at a critical time when pupils are supposed to start their end-of-year promotional examinations this week.

Parents fault school

Some parents of the school expressed concern that the school brought teachers who are not known by their children and, worse still, are from an Ebola high-risk region. When New Vision visited the school at noon, four of the seven new teachers remained to teach, while the rest had vanished after they were allegedly harassed by the striking teachers earlier in the day.

Sarah Tiko, a parent who has two children at the school, was frustrated by the events at the school. She said the health of their children has been put in jeopardy with the arrival of new teachers from a high-risk Ebola area.

According to her, despite the school not having a UNEB center, their children remained four days at home last week, as they were not aware of the ongoing strike by the teachers.

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Benard Cadri, a soldier, said he was equally disturbed by the actions of the school administration and wants the issue resolved as soon as possible.

Cadri accused the school management of deliberately wanting to fail their children by bringing in unknown teachers for them instead of settling the arrears of the old teachers.

Teacher speaks out

George Olema, a teacher at the school who is allegedly demanding two months' pay, was among those who camped at Arua CPS. He said all efforts to have the matter resolved at the school level failed, and he accused the school management of intimidation.

Some of the female teachers said their landlords are on the verge of evicting them from their rentals.

However, the administrator of the school, Caroline Ocanda, declined to comment on the matter after hearing from the police, citing a busy schedule.

The proprietor of the school, Leo Ayoma, said he had spent months without visiting the school and was on his way there.

West Nile Region Police spokesperson Josephine Angucia said the police intervention helped to calm down the situation as the two parties worked on the modalities to resolve the matter amicably.

The dejected parents kept picking their children up from school, but it was not clear what their next course of action would be at the time.