Minister confiscates students’ phones

NGOMA - Head teachers who fail to inculcate discipline among students risk losing their jobs, Dr. Mathias Harebamungu, the State Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, has warned. He directed teachers to closely monitor students, co-operate with police, carry out counseling and get closer to students in part to check indiscipline. The minister said that the emphasis during assemblies should be on advising senior three and six students that they were not above school rules. He was speaking about a recent incident where students destroyed school property, at E.A.V. School in Ngoma District. Harebamungu told The New Times that he was prompted to confiscate students’ cell phones in Zaza schools- which students use against school rules and regulations to coordinate their activities. “I had to destroy many phones owned by students in schools. For God’s sake, how does a student own two cell phones? We cannot tolerate undisciplined students at any cost,” he said. “I have ordered students who destroyed school property to be expelled forthwith. Similarly, head teachers who don’t instill discipline in schools will be sacked. This laissez-faire kind of attitude has no room”. Teachers in schools agree that students’ indiscipline is one of the most menacing challenges facing the school system. Claude Muganda, a teacher in Nyamirama School, said that schools have for long been battling with students’ discipline with little success. “We teachers admit that we feel “intimidated” and “fearful,” our feelings of insecurity arise out of concern that the standard of discipline in our schools is on a continual downward spiral,” he said. Parents say there is need to revisit children’s upbringing.“We have to help teachers to offer counselling services to students. The blame doesn’t spare the parents either,” said Josephine Umutesi, a parent in Kibungo town. Ends

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Minister confiscates students’ phones