EASTERN PROVINCE NGOMA — After spending a month without lessons, students of ESM Secondary School in the Ngoma district have appealed to concerned authorities to get them a sufficient number of teachers. According to sources within the school, about five teachers teaching ‘A’ Level have resigned since this term begun, citing poor working conditions leading to scarcity among the teaching staff. “The working conditions coupled with meagre pay here are unfavourable and there is nothing that can stop any one from leaving if he or she gets a job else where,” a teacher who asked not to be named said. The school at the beginning of this term raised the school fees charged from Rwf.40, 000 to Rwf.50, 000 for day students and from Rwf.65,000 to Rwf.81,000 for boarding students. Despite this, no effort has been undertaken to improve the situation, according to a staff member who preferred to remain anonymous . In Senior Five alone, students lack teachers for subjects like Mathematics, networking, computer maintenance, visual basic, data base and other Information technology courses. In Senior Four students have not studied all the above mentioned subjects since the term begun. And there are no teachers for C-programming, introduction to web design and Algorithm. The school with a specialisation in information technology also lacks enough computers compared to the number of students, with most of the old computers barely functioning within the required standards. In 2006, the school had 24 computers but it now has only eight. There are over 600 students in the whole school with close to 180 being in ‘A’ Level alone. Other sources within students body and the teaching staff allege that students who complain to the administration about lack of teachers and poor feeding are either suspended or dismissed. When The New Times visited the school on Friday for a comment, there was no official available, and efforts to get them on mobile phones proved futile by yesterday. Bosco Rutagengwa, who is in-charge of youth sports and culture in the district, said that the district education office has not yet received any complaint regarding anolamies being experienced at the school. He said, “We will follow it up to establish if such allegations are indeed true and we will certainly deal with such issues accordingly.” ESM secondary school has for the past three years trailed other schools in the district. Ends
