The cause of strikes needs to be probed
Mar 10, 2003
Strikes in Uganda schools are becoming a threat to the nation’s peace. the recent strike at St Maria Goretti Katende, therefore cannot be categorised as an isolated case to which the Ministry of Education can turn a blind eye.
The Other SIDE OF THE COIN: With Paul Waibale Senior
Strikes in Uganda schools are becoming a threat to the nation’s peace. the recent strike at St Maria Goretti Katende, therefore cannot be categorised as an isolated case to which the Ministry of Education can turn a blind eye.
It is imperative that appropriate steps are taken to verify the circumstances that precipitated that particular strike and the host of others before it.
The St Maria Goretti Katende affair had all the ugly features of people of bad taste. First, it seems that the contamination of the student’s food with paraffin was the cause of the strike. But it seems the students created an excuse to vandalise school property, which they ruthlessly unleashed.
Second, the malicious destruction to the school property which included a recently acquired bus and a lorry as well as the shuttering of window glasses was a criminal act for which the perpetrators should face the law.
Third, the whole student populace must be held responsible and made to raise the sum of money equivalent to the costs of the school property damaged or destroyed, estimated at sh50m. Unfortunately, it is the parents of the students who had nothing to do with the strike that have to bear the burden.
Interestingly, the students ultimately abandoned the paraffin excuse and resorted to accusations that the headmaster was using their school bus to transport students of his own private school located nearby. They also claimed food was being taken from their school to the headmaster’s private school.
Of course, those allegations, even if they were true, cannot justify the criminal acts which the students resorted to. nevertheless, it important that those allegations are thoroughly investigated. Should the investigation prove that the students’ accusations were valid, then appropriate action should be taken against the headmaster.
Be that as it may, it is not sufficient for the Ministry of Education to be content with whatever measures have been taken against the ring leaders in the strike. The deterioration of discipline in schools has been manifested in the last two years by numerous riotous acts, some of which extend beyond the boundaries of the schools concerned.
A few examples will suffice. Since charity begins at home, let me begin with the example of an incident in which 400 students of Alliance High School invaded the New Vision office in Mbarara and vandalised it.
The invaders smashed furniture and equipment in the office and pelted the company’s vehicle with stones. And all this was in protest against a story about the prevalence of teenage pregnancies in that school which was published in Orumuri. On another occasion a battle of stones, clubs, and iron bars raged between students of St Peter’s College and Majansi High School. Several students were injured.
The cause of the battle was that students of St Peter’s College were, during a ceremony at Tororo Girls School, accorded VIP treatment. While at Ombatini Secondary School, students torched three dormitories after complaining that the roofs were leaking.
The headmaster was seriously injured in the fracas and was hospitalised. Examples of violent strikes in Uganda schools are too many to be exhausted, but apparently very little is being done to diagnose the problem and prescribe a remedy.
There have been threats of serious action against those who stage strikes and, or headmasters whose mismanagement of schools leads to strikes, but these have yielded nothing.
Meanwhile, teachers and parents have expressed the view that the deterioration of discipline was precipitated by the decision of the Ministry of Education to ban corporal punishment in schools. I do not know how sparing the rod can turn a whole school of properly disciplined students into a gang of vandals.
But that view should be scrutinised, for what it is worth. I have on one occasion in this column pleaded that the Minister of Education and Sports should set up a commission of inquiry to investigate the causes of violent strikes in schools and colleges and prescribe remedial recommendations.
I repeat my prayer and nurse the hope that this time around it will not fall on deaf ears.
Strikes in Uganda schools are becoming a threat to the nation’s peace. the recent strike at St Maria Goretti Katende, therefore cannot be categorised as an isolated case to which the Ministry of Education can turn a blind eye.
It is imperative that appropriate steps are taken to verify the circumstances that precipitated that particular strike and the host of others before it.
The St Maria Goretti Katende affair had all the ugly features of people of bad taste. First, it seems that the contamination of the student’s food with paraffin was the cause of the strike. But it seems the students created an excuse to vandalise school property, which they ruthlessly unleashed.
Second, the malicious destruction to the school property which included a recently acquired bus and a lorry as well as the shuttering of window glasses was a criminal act for which the perpetrators should face the law.
Third, the whole student populace must be held responsible and made to raise the sum of money equivalent to the costs of the school property damaged or destroyed, estimated at sh50m. Unfortunately, it is the parents of the students who had nothing to do with the strike that have to bear the burden.
Interestingly, the students ultimately abandoned the paraffin excuse and resorted to accusations that the headmaster was using their school bus to transport students of his own private school located nearby. They also claimed food was being taken from their school to the headmaster’s private school.
Of course, those allegations, even if they were true, cannot justify the criminal acts which the students resorted to. nevertheless, it important that those allegations are thoroughly investigated. Should the investigation prove that the students’ accusations were valid, then appropriate action should be taken against the headmaster.
Be that as it may, it is not sufficient for the Ministry of Education to be content with whatever measures have been taken against the ring leaders in the strike. The deterioration of discipline in schools has been manifested in the last two years by numerous riotous acts, some of which extend beyond the boundaries of the schools concerned.
A few examples will suffice. Since charity begins at home, let me begin with the example of an incident in which 400 students of Alliance High School invaded the New Vision office in Mbarara and vandalised it.
The invaders smashed furniture and equipment in the office and pelted the company’s vehicle with stones. And all this was in protest against a story about the prevalence of teenage pregnancies in that school which was published in Orumuri. On another occasion a battle of stones, clubs, and iron bars raged between students of St Peter’s College and Majansi High School. Several students were injured.
The cause of the battle was that students of St Peter’s College were, during a ceremony at Tororo Girls School, accorded VIP treatment. While at Ombatini Secondary School, students torched three dormitories after complaining that the roofs were leaking.
The headmaster was seriously injured in the fracas and was hospitalised. Examples of violent strikes in Uganda schools are too many to be exhausted, but apparently very little is being done to diagnose the problem and prescribe a remedy.
There have been threats of serious action against those who stage strikes and, or headmasters whose mismanagement of schools leads to strikes, but these have yielded nothing.
Meanwhile, teachers and parents have expressed the view that the deterioration of discipline was precipitated by the decision of the Ministry of Education to ban corporal punishment in schools. I do not know how sparing the rod can turn a whole school of properly disciplined students into a gang of vandals.
But that view should be scrutinised, for what it is worth. I have on one occasion in this column pleaded that the Minister of Education and Sports should set up a commission of inquiry to investigate the causes of violent strikes in schools and colleges and prescribe remedial recommendations.
I repeat my prayer and nurse the hope that this time around it will not fall on deaf ears.