More than 200 first year students of Bukalasa Agriculture College in Luweero district have been suspended for staging a strike to protest against external examinations.
In a directive dated June 8, 2012, the chairman of the college board of governing council, Nicholas Kawuuta, ordered the Principal Christine Anyait and police to order the students to go back home until further notice.
The Saturday suspension came after students boycotted the Uganda Business and Technical Examination Board-UBTEB examinations.
Police commanded by officer in charge of Wobulenzi police station, Mario Ociti, asked students to leave the college.
The Luweero District Police Commander Samuel Bamuzibire says that the governing council and the Ministry of Agriculture have agreed to suspend as they discuss their grievances.
Hundreds of students have been seen leaving the school with some of them accusing the governing council of using excessive powers to suspend them rather addressing their problems. Some of the students, who spoke to URN on condition of anonymity, said that they are not going home to sit but to ensure they seek redress from the minister of agriculture Tress Buchanayandi.
The students rejected the examinations on Wednesday saying UBTEB is unknown to employers and local universities which would affect their future. They asked the college administration to suspend the examinations and instead administer internal examinations. The papers were withdrawn but the college principal, Christine Anyait, declined to set examination saying that Business Technical Vocation Education Training Act 2008 transferred the right to UBTEB to set all college examinations.
Thomas Ojok, the Commissioner for human resource management in the Ministry of Agriculture and the Office of the Solicitor General also intervened and advised the students to sit examinations but without success.
When URN visited the school on Saturday afternoon, there was heavy police deployment as students packed their belongings to leave.
