Seven teachers from Buganda commune on strike since Monday

At least seven teachers from Kazoza Iwacu School located in Ruhagarika area in Buganda commune of Cibitoke province in the west of Burundi have gone on strike since Monday June 17th. They claim BIF 11.2 million which they have not been paid on time.

Seven teachers on strike sitting behind Kazoza Iwacu School

“Every employee should be paid after providing services” says Thaddée Nkurunziza, one of these teachers on strike.

He says these teachers have received incomplete salaries since the establishment of this private school in 2012. They sent several correspondences to the legal representative of this school to claim arrears and he promised to solve the problem.

These teachers had gone on strike on April 15 of this year because the school management had not responded to their correspondence. At that time, the provincial director of education in Cibitoke province had mediated the disputes between the school management and those teachers.

Two months after the failure to implement the conclusions reached in the meeting held in April, they resumed their strike on June 17th. The legal representative of Kazoza Iwacu School therefore decided to suspend these seven strikers from their position for one month.

Mr Nkurunziza accuses the school representative of treating them unjustly. “How are they going to evaluate pupils they have not taught?” he wonders. “We are still considered as employees of this school. We have the right to stage a strike. The punishment does not make sense,” says Yves Ndayishimiye, another teacher.

These teachers, however, say losing their job is not a problem. They only ask to be given their complete salaries. “We can stay home. We are overwhelmed by the “ordeal” we have been living through for years,” says Ndayishimiye.

Ananias Sinzinkayo, Director of the school, calls on those teachers to be patient. They claim their dues improperly.

“They have just violated the conclusions of the meeting held in April. The period of application of the reached conclusion had not yet ended,” he says adding that the school coordination has decided to suspend them for a month.

Instead of the amount claimed by these teachers, Mr. Sinzinkayo ​​says those teachers deserve only BIF 900,000 for the last two months. He explains that they cannot be paid for the days they were on strike.
Nearly 200 students are studying at Kazoza Iwacu Basic School which has 11 teachers.