Kasese Arrests 22 Teachers Over Illegal Schools

TWENTY-TWO headmasters, teachers and school owners in Kasese district were arrested on Tuesday for operating illegal schools, reports John Thawite.The rest fled on learning that the operation was underway. Those arrested included teachers and owners of Ngome Vocational and Mboga Secondary School. An assistant inspector of schools on study leave at Makerere University was among them. They were detained at the district local administration Police headquarters at the Rukoki.The district local administration Police Criminal Investigations Department officer, Nicholas Sanyu, said the suspects would be prosecuted. Th arrests follows a May 10 meeting of education stakeholders at which schools operating outside the Ministry of Education minimum standard guidelines were ordered not to open for the second term.The meeting, chaired by the district council chairman, Yokasi Bihande, identified 54 schools to be shut down. The district principal education officer, Douglas Katemba, said the schools had defied a May 16 order to close.Katemba said some of the schools were operating in structures unfit for human habitation while others had no pit-latrines, were not licensed, contrary to the 1970 Education Act.The schools affected included that of Bukonzo East Member of Parliament Apronalis Kithende’s Kithende College School, Rwenzori Pride, Bwera High School, Bwera Alliance, Mpondwe Parents and St. Kizito Vocational Secondary School, Kituti. Others are Kisinga School for Adult Education, Baba Model, Cardinal Nsubuga, Munkunyu Seventh Day Adventist School and Rwenzori Academy in Kisinga sub-county.Ends