By Martin Paul with agency report
At a time the law prohibiting indecent dressing is prevailing in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, secondary school students are violently protesting against the ban on wearing of mini-skirts in Ugandan schools.
Report monitored in Abuja stated that more than 1,300 students of Aduku Secondary School, Apac District, have been sent home following a violent strike which resulted into the destruction of school property worth about Shs100 million.
School authorities said the last Saturday night strike was sparked-off by a ban on wearing of mini-skirts and tight trousers.
Last week, the school administration confiscated all mini-skirts and tight trousers, a move which reportedly annoyed the students in Aduku secondary school, an Anglican Church -founded mixed ‘O’ and ‘A’ level boarding school.
Before the strike, the students had also claimed that they were not comfortable with having porridge for breakfast at 6am, the time when they should still be enjoying sleep.
The headmaster, Mr. Patrick Okwir Angulo, said last term, they issued a circular to all parents warning that mini-skirts and tight trousers would not be allowed in school. This was after it was realised that girls cut their long skirts and turned them into mini-skirts., while boys were also reducing the size of their normal trousers to make them tight.
“During the opening of this term, teachers were deployed at the school gate to check the kind of uniforms students had come with.
Mini-skirts and tight trousers were confiscated and cut into pieces. But those that could not be cut were kept in the school store and will be given back to the owners at the end of the term”, Okwir said.
The headmaster said that was a way of instilling discipline in the students and added that the wearing of non uniforms at school has been banned.
But a group of about 10 students from Senior Three allegedly mobilised and spearheaded the strike last Saturday. They reportedly pulled down a wall fence measuring 307 metres, which they say limited their movement outside the school.
“They also tried to push down the wall fence from the girls’ wing, but the girls never came out to join them in the strike,” Okwir said.
He said the students broke into the computer laboratory and destroyed all the computers by pouring sewerage on them. The protesters also broke all the window panes.
The district police commander, Mr. Alfonse Ojangole, and the district education officer, Mr. Billy Okunyu, visited the school and talked to the students before they were all sent home for 10 days.
A joint Parents Teachers’ Association (PTA) and Board of Governors’ (BoGs)meeting had been scheduled to agree on a way forward.
