A stormy meeting between parents and management of Kampala Parents School over the grievances of teachers ended with a resolution that pupils stay home for two days until all issues are resolved.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!It follows a sit down strike by teachers of the school last week over poor pay and harsh working conditions. The teachers had resolved not to go back to class
Yet given that the end of term examinations were due to start this week some parents suggested that they meet with management and teachers to resolve the impasse.
A number of parents who attended the meeting told Bbeg Media on condition of anonymity that the school management appeared helpless and clueless.
“The principal was constantly talking about consulting the chairman (Sudhir) about many of the things we said. They don’t have any power to implement the changes we suggested,” the parent said.
Sudhir did not attend the meeting and Daphne Kato, the long-serving principal of the school represented the management.
The meeting agreed that pupils stay home for now.
However, it occasionally turned emotional as parents raised a number of issues that they said were taking the once cherished school down the drain.
According to sources, one parent claimed that he has to pack toilet tissue for their child because there isn’t any in the lavaratories.
Another parent claimed that the bathrooms were dirty and some of their young girls were picking Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) at the school.
When they turned to the quality of food, many hands shot up.
“The food is so poor and my children always get diarrhea,” complained a parent in a meeting adding that the meat and groundnuts given to the pupils are always half-cooked.
Another complained the besides the poor quality, the food portions given are inadequate.
“I pick my three kids at 1 pm but they reach home very hungry. They eat everything in the fridge including my tomatoes and you wonder if they even eat at school. My kids told me that those ladies serving food are very rude they even fear to ask for more and it was not the case in first term,” fumed the parent.
Other parents claimed that Ugandan pupils are not allowed to pack food yet those of Asian origin do.
“There is that differential treatment for Indians as if they pay a more tuition,” commented one parent.
Kampala Parents School charges Shs 2 million as fees per term.
Not all that shines is gold. Sudir munyunyusi.