The Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Pallisa Kyeyune Ssenyonjo on Monday 20th Jan 2020 with the help of police stormed Pallisa Progressive Secondary School and directed the closure of the school and subsequent arrest of one of the directors of the school
Pallisa Progressive Secondary School located in the town centre is a private school which started operating last year.
Mr. Ssenyonjo, identified the arrested director as John Odeke.
He accused Mr. Odeke of opening up the school on Monday contrary to the set district local guidelines and that of the Ministry of Education and Sports.
He warned other schools against opening before the official date for the first school term to start according to the Education ministry. The school term, according to the education ministry, begins on February 3, 2020.
When contacted about the issue, the DPC Pallisa Mr. Bagonza Godfrey said he was not aware of the arrest and pledged to follow it up.
Odeke, while speaking at CPS, said the RDC stormed the school where he called the students addressed them before ordering all of them and teachers to vacate the school immediately.
He said their pleas to the charged RDC to let them remain open because they had received permission from the ministry after a petition fell on deaf ears.
He claimed that the RDC is being used by their competitors to malign their school adding that it’s not the first time the RDC is sending letters threatening to close the school.
According to the RDC’s letter seen by the media authored on 18th,December, 2019, the director of the school was summoned to meet with district special security team.
’’You are hereby asked to report to the office of the undersigned to discuss security issues about your school’’ the letter read in part.
He said the RDC is being used by their competitors to fight the school.
However a cross section of parents who talked to the media expressed their dissatisfaction over the incident.
They wondered why the RDC decided to close only one school and left the rest to operate.
The DEO Pallisa Lukendo Odet when contacted on phone said she was not aware of the development and pledged to follow up on the matter.
John Opedun, the Pallisa District Inspector of School, said he wasn’t aware of the arrest but the RDC had briefed their department that there is a school that had opened illegally.
He also noted that many private schools in the district had opened on Monday, Jan 20, contrary to the set guidelines.
By the time of filing this story the director of the school was still in custody.
Edited by David Tumusiime
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