Ilboru Secondary School
Protest suspension of Form Three colleague
Hundreds of Ilboru Secondary School students here are reported to be on go-slow, protesting against the suspension of fellow student Ibrahim Kaebo.
One of the students who was interviewed at the school on Monday morning, but declined to reveal his name said the go-slow was to express the students’ anger at the school board decision.
“We are not happy with the board ruling. The suspended student is innocent,” he said.
“We have started this ‘go-slow’ since morning and we are not ready to attend classes until the school administration provides a thorough explanation on why our colleague has been suspended,” another student said, adding: “We want to know the fate of our fellow student.”
Reports from the school said that Ibrahim a Form Three student was suspended last Saturday over a number of charges, some of which are not ‘genuine’.
"Right now as students we have nothing to say to the media as discussions are
underway with our teachers on the possibility of recalling the suspended student,” another angry student said.
Reports said that since yesterday morning no teachers had entered classrooms. The Guardian visited the school, which is located in Arumeru District and found students loitering around.
Some teachers also were moving up and down, while the
school headmaster was reported to be in a meeting.
No teacher was ready to speak on the ongoing go-slow, saying they were not the school spokespersons.
A School secondmaster who was available wasn’t ready to disclose even his name because he wasn’t the school spokesperson.
"Our headmaster is not in the office. And I have the mandate to speak on behalf of the school. But, I would assist you to ask the head,” he said quickly rushing into the meeting.
Surprisingly, the school academic master came out of the meeting and told journalists that the school head wasn’t in a position to speak to the media.
“Right now, the headmaster is not in a position to speak on this matter because we are still working on it. When time comes we’ll call you (journalists) and speak on it,” he said.
Last year in September dozens of angry students from Ilboru Secondary School, carrying banners and chanting slogans, marched to the Arusha Regional Commissioner’s office accusing their headmaster Jovinus Mutabuzi of harassing them and denying them freedom of worship.
Ally Simalenga the student government general secretary said that they were demanding immediate removal of their headmaster, who they accused of frequently abusing students.
Simalenga said the headmaster locks halls used for worship, only unlocking them after peaceful protests by students, though the one used by Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) is still locked, denying the faithful a place for worship.
During the same month the government suspended the headmaster Mutabuzi and named Loma Nteles, who was the Assistant Headmaster as Acting Headmaster of the school.
SOURCE:
THE GUARDIAN
