The Deputy Minister of Education, Arts, and Culture, Faustina Caley, met with residents of Ndama, with discussions centred around a dispute over a site designated to construct a school.
Parents, demanding that the school be constructed in Ndama East, refused to meet with the deputy minister.
The meeting began positively, with a significant turnout of parents and community members.
The Acting Director of Education, Arts, and Culture, Christine Shilima, provided an account to the community of how the dispute had begun.
“We did send our team; Ndama West does not qualify; the space is just too small for a school; then the team they presented to the management, although we have the only choice of the space and the plot that are available in this particular location where we can possibly construct a school, it will not be possible; the community is demanding compensation because apparently it is their field.”
Shilima stated that, apart from a lack of funds to effect compensation, her office was not informed on time of the learners at Ndama who did not secure placement.
“That was then the lack of communication between our directorate and the community of Ndama East and Ndama West; by the time we received the information, it was a bit late; it was after our 15-day statistic, and we were then informed that they had already established the school and had already recruited the teachers.”
Disruption arose during the question-and-answer session.
Parents expressed their discontent over a decision to transfer their children from an unauthorised school where they are currently enrolled to a new establishment under construction in Ndama South.
The parents further refuted claims that they’d reportedly called for compensation, insisting that their chosen representative present evidence of such intent.
Tensions escalated to the point where law enforcement stepped in and extracted the spokesperson from the gathering.
“I was having relevant documents from the field owners; these documents I am holding here are the latter’s written by the field owners, and even these documents were attached to the latter’s that were sent to her office as the directorate of education, which are saying that we give this land without any compensation. Now today she came here as a director, telling people that the people of Ndama demanded compensation of land, which was not true, and I wanted now as the platform came for me to speak and clarify to people what is on paper. They have noticed that I have relevant documents in my hands, and they decided that we don’t want dumber to speak.”
Leave a Reply