Pupils at Kenneth Kaunda Secondary School in Chinsali district ran amock in the early hours of today destroying property worth undisclosed millions of kwacha.
Both Muchinga province deputy commissioner of police Chilije Nyirenda and Chinsali district commissioner Evelyn Kangwa have confirmed the development in separate interviews with the Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) in Chinsali today.
The two senior government officials who rushed to the school after midnight when the riot started however declined to give the actual monetary value of the damaged property as an assessment has not yet been done by the relevant authorities.
Meanwhile, authorities at the school have not yet established the cause of the riotous behaviour by the boys in which they destroyed window panes at the girls dormitories and some teachers houses.
The boys also beat up the girls in the dormitories and stole their money and food.
The irate pupils have also damaged a personal vehicle belonging to one of the staff members at the learning institution.
The rioting pupils also attempted to go to Chinsali Girls secondary school to beat up the girls but quick action by the police prevented them from entering the school premises.
Police in full riot gear where deployed around the school to prevent the boys from causing harvoc at Chinsali Girls.
And District Commissioner Ms Evelyn Kangwa has condemned the behaviour by the boys and called on the school administration to get to the root cause of the confusion.
Ms. Kangwa also directed that the pupils should account for the damage they have caused to property at the school.
She said they boys should have sought other means of resolving their grievances with the school administration instead of them becoming violent.
“It is wrong for the boys to act in the manner they have done. They should learn to solve problems through dialogue,” said Ms. Kangwa.
And the Kenneth Kaunda Secondary school Parent Teachers Association –PTA chairperson Weston Milimo has blamed the riot by the pupils on alleged poor administration of school affairs at the institution.
Mr. Milimo told ZANIS in a telephone interview that authorities should ensure that they also deal with the administrators of the school.
“ What has happened at KK is as a result of a lapse in the administration . There is need for an overhaul at this school to avoid future problems. They boys who also rioted need to be dealt with severely,” said Mr. Mwansa.
The boys have since run away from the school into the nearby bush leaving only female pupils in the institution.
ZANIS
Administrators in high schools think they are small gods.they ve no respect for pupils and ordinary teachers.they always ve favourite teachers whom they listen to and disregard other teachers.im writing from experience.the most respected official at high schools is the bursar all because money is kept and signed out by this person.Headteachers and their bursars are pure theives!
If that is the map Ukwa is using to ‘create’ districts, it seems he has a job to work Mpika into about 4 or so districts by next week…..
Who iz ukwa?
Realy administration at this school is useless, how can they fail to stablish the cause of the riot??? There is something wrong with the administration really.
Actually,even Serenje has room for 3 or 4 more districts, but i suppose that can be left as work for next month.
boarding school days yabaaaaaa filachitika
Ms. Evelyn Kangwa sounds like a good looking police officer.
Too much Human rights for these brats. Last time it was Kitwe Boys who rioted because they thought reporting to school at 07:30 was too early. Whip them very hard ku bokosi with hose pipes and they will learn to respect authority governmet property.
Those pupils need to be disciplined because without proper action on them they will plant a bad seed in pupils of other schools. School administrators also should learn to get advise from even the most junior teacher. Selective type of administration breeds into ciaos. In most cases headteachers side with bursars/accounts assistants for the better reason known to them. Such behaviour brings about suspicion which in turn erupts into what happened at KK.
You break the plate where you eat from, what next!! Stay home because you dont want to learn!!
The lumpen behaviour of pupilz ( however “genuine” the reazonz) iz quickly becoming even more notorious than the deadly cancer. It must be nipped in the bud soonest and the stern action taken should serve az a deterent to others! You can’t have 14 – 18 year oldz (idealy) breakin the law with such impunity across the country, just becauze they are not happy with the colour, shape, size, gender or intellect of thei teacherz.
Wether the pupilz are fed on beanz with maggots(God forbid!) or not allowed cell phonez and so on, there’z no justification to go on wanton destruction of private/public property. Not too long ago similar incidents were reported at Kawambwa Boyz, Chizongwe, Anoya Zulu and Chiwala Secondary Schoolz. The time we went to school, there were a 101 problemz, but we never rezorted to such barbaric actionz for redress.
Hi, just wanted to say i liked this article. it was practical. keep on posting.
Such behaviour is due to no weeding to the school.All indisciplined pupils should be weeded out of the school to avoid further riots.