100 parents, whose children are enrolled at Abur-kidi Primary School in Amolatar district, yesterday stormed the school demanding to know why they were being charged 300 shillings every day to have their children learn mathematics.
The mathematics teacher, James Okun, has been demanding for 300 shillings from each of his P6 and P7 pupils. If they failed to pay the money, they were denied access to his classes.
The angry parents demanded audience with the Abur-kidi headmaster and asked for answers to their queries.
One of the parents, Denis Opio from Abur-kidi village, said his child has been prevented from attending maths classes for about a month because he cannot afford to pay 300 shillings for each class. Opio said he and his neighbors recently returned home from years of living in IDP camps and had enough challenges dealing with the daily sustenance of their families without being troubled by demands from the school/
Abur-kidi Primary School was established as a community-owned school. This year it was taken over by the government and free education was granted to all pupils. For the first time since it was built, Abur-kidi will be a Primary Leaving Examination center.
The school headmaster, Bruno Obong, said he wasn't aware of the covert activities of the maths teacher. He said it may have been part of a process of initiating extra tuition classes for pupils in P6 and P7.
A few parents in the mob said this isn't the first case of extortion that they have faced at Abur-kidi Primary School. They disclosed that recently they were asked for 1,000 shillings to allow their children to English language classes.
The parents said they would report the matter to the police if the school management does not sort it within a week. The headmaster said an emergency meeting of the school management committee would be convened to resolve the matter.
