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Village teachers in Rufiji delta go on `French leave`
2007-04-17 10:11:03
By Amri Lugungulo, PST, Coast
Primary schools in Salali Ward in Rufiji District, Coast Region, are said to have been bedeviled by teacher`s absenteeism, it has been revealed.
It was further revealed that district schools` inspectors are allegedly to have abandoned schools in Nchinga Mfisini and Kiongoni villages claiming that they are out of reach.
The Ward CCM Secretary, Masoud Bakati Ungungulu told PST recently that “inspectors do not go beyond Nyamisati Village in the district”.
Nchinga Mfisini has three sub-villages of Simbaulanga, Saninga and Salali Kiluani.
Meanwhile Kiongoni Village has three sub-village named A, B and C. The two share four primary schools, which suffer the same problem.
Ungungulu told PST that “Sometimes teachers disappear for a very long time, knowing that inspectors can never visit the schools”.
His statement was echoed by the Nyamisati CCM Ward chairman, Hamis Ally Mkungumwe and Village Executive Officer, Ally Omari Mirandu.
Village leaders admitted that the said schools had for sometimes failed to even send a single student to secondary school.
“Nchinga school began in 1972 however, it has not sent a pupil to secondary school for the past ten years”, said one of the leaders.
They said schools` compounds were unkempt because no one seemed to take care of them.
“The school has two teachers who seem to give each other long `French leaves’ to Kibiti, Bungu or Ikwiriri townships for private business, leaving one teacher to teach all the classes,” claimed one of the leaders.
The ward leaders` said teachers` absenteeism is attributed by their confidence that school inspectors can hardly cross Rufiji estuary waters by canoes.
Nyamisati is the last village accessible by road, beyond which one must travel by canoe to reach Kiongoni and Nchinga Mfisini villages. The two are islands in the Rufiji Delta.
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