School shut down as pupils protest over shortage of teachers

Operations came to a complete halt at Alphendale Secondary School in Buffalo Flats, KuGompo City, as scores of pupils protested over the shortage of teachers. Since the beginning of the year, the school, which is yet to appoint a principal, is said to have a shortage of physical science and natural sciences teachers for pupils from grade 9 to matric. This comes as fewer than 200 days remain before the end-of-year examinations.

The school achieved a 67.3% matric pass rate last year, a 5.6% increase from 2024. On Tuesday morning, pupils were locked outside the school’s premises while they protested, calling for an end to teacher shortages. The pupils, who carried placards, said they would return to the classrooms once their demands had been met.

Part of those demands is an immediate appointment of a physics teacher and a life orientation teacher, especially for their matriculants. None of these people are taking into consideration that we need to apply to universities A matric pupil said they had been waiting for four months for a physics teacher and had been promised a new teacher since January. “What they say is that they’re going to bring the physics teacher, but they never deliver to us,” the pupil said.

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“What we did see is that we keep getting excuse after excuse and we never really get a tangible answer. “We spoke to the management of the school yesterday because we were organising a protest.

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