RUSIZI—The Government has closed down Ecole Secondaire Inferieure (ESI), in Muganza Sector, Rusizi District in Western Province over alleged ethnic ideology.The closure comes just days after eight students of the school were detained at a police station near CIMERWA cement factory after several reports implicated them in slashing mattresses belonging to students who are Genocide survivors.The school was closed Thursday, after an inspector of schools from the Ministry of Education, Callixte Kayisire, visited it. In a meeting Kayisire held with the school management, parents, the district director of education and security authorities, it was observed that cases of genocide ideology and ethnic division had submerged the school since 2005.Muganza Sector leaders, students and other school administrators also attended the meeting.The meeting chaired by Kayisire, resolved to close the school immediately after it failed to produce the errant students responsible for slashing students’ mattresses.The students were also accused of throwing away scholastic materials belonging to their colleagues. “The meeting resolved to close down this school until it produces those responsible for harassing and the cutting of several mattresses belonging to Genocide survivors,” Kayisire told The New Times after the meeting.Members also resolved to transfer the school head teacher, Etienne Ngirinshuti, and his entire management to other schools next term.During the meeting, student survivors who were present accused the headmaster of harbouring ethnic hatred, uttering verbal insults and giving them undue punishments.“We Genocide survivor students in this school have been subjected to a lot of harassment, death threats and unfair punishments, including beatings by our fellow students” they said.“This really indicated that our headmaster and the entire school management entertained the harassment we have been facing because whenever we reported the matter to them, nothing would be done,” the students claimed.This is the first time that a school has been closed because of entertaining ethnic ideology.Members of the Lower Chamber of Parliament are currently visiting schools in a campaign aimed at fighting genocide ideology among schools after a parliamentary commission last year unearthed shocking cases of the ideology in many schools.Ends
