Former students from Buterere technical paramedical school ask the ministries of education and health to assist them in relation to their case. Seven among them were arrested this Monday 24 after they had staged a sit-in in front of headmaster’s office.
Buterere Technical Paramedical School where the arrested students studied.
Those students ask the director of this school to shed light on their case. “We don’t know what to do and where to seek assistance. Other students started their studies two weeks ago and we are still at home waiting for the director’s decision. We have not got our diploma and have no places to study. Besides, we don’t even have report cards”, says one of the students.
He says they have sent a letter to the ministers of health and education but have got no answer so far. “We want them to shed light on our case so that we know what to do”.
Yvette, one of the students, says the director wants them to bribe him. “He has asked me sexual favor saying that he will assist me with the case but I refused”, she says, adding that she has messages that he has sent to her.
Parents of those students ask the concerned ministries to intervene and help their children. “If they have to go back to school, we’d better know that and send them.Educating a child for 14 years to end up not knowing if they succeeded or failed in the final year is really heartbreaking,” says Myriam a mother of one of the students.
Emmanuel Ngabireyimana, the headmaster of the school refutes the accusations and says that the problem stems from the mistake made in the ministry of public health. “There was a mistake at the ministry level. They first posted a list of 51 studentcandidates for the state exam in June. It was later edited because there was a mistake and some students were removed on the list and others added,” he says.
Mr Ngabireyimana says students who were removed from the list after this modification have not accepted that they failed.
He adds that students who are allowed to repeatthe class should come and study and those who ask for report cards should come and see them. “The problem is that most of the students that are complaining are not allowed to repeat the class because this is their third year in the same class”.
Ngabireyimana rejects the accusations about sexual favor. “The victim should report it to the police if she has the evidence,” he says.
The police accuse them of persecuting the headmaster. “They locked in the headmaster and took his cell phone”.
The seven students that staged a sit-in in front of the headmaster’s office were sent to Buterere zone jail after hours under police interrogation. They were released late in the afternoon.
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