WESTERN PROVINCE

RUBAVU — The District Advisory Council has suspended thirty primary and secondary school teachers who shunned civic education training (Itorero) last month.

The suspended teachers are members of Jehovah Witnesses faith. The training had been organized for all the teachers countrywide.

Médiatrice Mwangange, Rubavu district education officer confirmed the development, saying the district advisory council had no alternative but to deal with the stubborn teachers. Mwangange said the teachers were not apologetic.

"They are acting stubbornly because the district mayor had a meeting with teachers some time back, asking them to write apologies and promise that they would attend the next civic education scheduled when the second term holidays begin but out of the 93 teachers that missed, 30 remained adamant,” Mwangange revealed. He said 30 teachers are Jehovah’s witnesses.

She noted that such people who intentionally undermine the government efforts towards unity and reconciliation were not suited to educate Rwandan children.

"These teachers say they don’t believe in the National Emblems and can not sing the National Anthem. What kind of religion is that that undermines government policies meant to draw people together in unity?” riled Mwangange asked.

She explained that unlike the Jehovah witnesses, 63 other teachers who missed Itorero due to various reasons, had made written apologies and said were ready to attend the civic education next holidays.

Out of the 30 suspended Jehovah witnesses, 18 were primary school teachers while 12 were from Secondary Schools in the district.

One of the Jehovah witness’s followers, Mercer Mwambari said that the training was against their religious obligations. Mwambari likened itorero to politics.

"We are Jehovah’s witnesses. We are united by the word of Jehovah. We never belong to any political party or involve ourselves in any political activities that can distract our brotherhood. We never get involved in voting leaders and we never attend political campaigns,” he said.

He explained that their involvement in any politically motivated activity would fuel divisions which might result into misunderstandings and hatred to their opponents.

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