Two students and the director of the New Junior Academic Primary and Secondary school have been taken into questioning, the police commissioner in Aweil state told Radio Tamazuj. It follows an incident where students are said to have burned down the school in protest about the lack of teaching.
The New Junior Academic School is a private institution that is located at Malou Aweer, and managed by Ayen William Amoi.
“The students have a problem with their head master in the school and the teachers. After they have paid their money they have not been taught. So they started destroying things and burning it,” the police commissioner in Aweil said.
An eyewitness told Radio Tamazuj that the students were about to cause more harm if the police did not intervene. The investigation is continuing, the police commissioner said.
The head teacher, Santo Bol, blamed the school director for not paying the teachers.
“The teachers were not given their salaries and some of them left. Some decided not to come to school and I don’t have the power to push them to teach while they are not paid,” Bol explained in an interview to Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday.
Eleven teachers have left the school, and only six remain because of the lack of pay.
A parent who has a child in school said she paid her school fees for a year, and demanded that the owner of the school give her a refund.
“If they don’t teach children then what is the reason they take money from us?” the parent said. “I paid 700SSP as school fees for my child who is in class 6 and if there are teachers to teach our children then they have to repay us back our money so that we can find another school for them”
The parents have planned to meet the school administration this weekend to discuss the issue.