The district’s Mayor George Mupenzi says the educationists resigned by their will during the meeting held on February 2nd in which he and his subordinates informed the summoned teachers about their disciplinary faults.
However, the victims say they were forced to sign the resignation under a tense pressure of district officials flanked by army and police officers in a showdown that ran from 11am to 2am of the next day as some of them received beatings and detained in a transit centre.
Mupenzi rejects claims of beating or detaining any of the teachers and says there were no security forces involved in the exercise that intended to safeguard the quality of education.
He says the teachers’ faults include reporting at work when they were drunk, skipping some working days and delays to attend their work, poor hygiene and bad schools management.
But the handling of the faults, whether true or false, has ignited public outcry with many wondering if the district had exhausted all disciplinary sanctions or if there is an untold story behind the allegedly forced resignation.
Again if the all the sanctioning procedures were exhausted, the district had legal powers to dismiss the teachers instead of waiting for their resignation.
“We are wondering how people decide to resign today and come back to claim their jobs tomorrow. Unless it is proved that all 46 have acquired mental illness,” says Faustin Harerimana, the General Secretary of Rwanda Teachers’ Syndicate.
{{But what’s really behind the saga? Victims speak out.
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Some teachers have told IGIHE that they are victims of claiming their dues and denouncing faults of their schools’ leaders who are cherished by district officials.
Dorothée Mukapeti, former Deputy Head-teacher in charge of Studies (DOS) at GS Bufunda, says she started denouncing her school leader’s actions in 2015 but the tension tightened in April 2017 when the DOS pointed out her school teachers who had no full work timetable and others receiving higher remunerations than their qualification deserved but they were under cover of the head-teacher
“I reported that mismanagement and embezzlement of public funds to the district’s vice mayor, the checking was done and the two teachers were transferred from our school but my headmaster got so angry with me and slapped me in front of students and teachers when I asked him the teachers’ attendance book as usual but he feared I would see other unnecessary teachers in the book,” said Mukapeti, the mother of six and a teacher since 1996.
The checkout by the Ministry of Education found at least 128 ghost teachers in Nyagatare in 2017.
Mukapeti says she reported her assault case to police and her deprivation of duties by headmaster to district’s officials who later visited her school to reconcile the two and headmaster apologised for his deeds. Her assault case is now in Nyagatare Primary Court.
She was relieved of her DOS duties last month and transferred to another school where she had started working as a mere teacher a week before her forced resignation
A male victim, who signed the resignation after days of detention and beatings, says he was charged with drunkenness but he had issues with his head-teacher over funds that parents contribute for teachers’ welfare commonly known as PTA. He says he and his fellows were falsely accused to the district’s officials by their own head-teachers with whom they had some disagreements.
Another male victim says he was, together with his seven colleagues from Bushara Primary School, accused of drunkenness but he puts his firing on his head-teacher with who he once had a misunderstanding.
Another victim lady also says she had issues with her head-teacher over the school’s mismanagement while the leader is a close friend to Nyagatare Vice-mayor in charge of Social Affairs, Domithille Musabyemariya.
Musabyemariya told IGIHE last week that these teachers’ issue was strange to her while the teachers say she was in the team that forced them to sign resignation letters.
As teachers’ syndicate awaits holding talks with the district, Harerimana says that they consider going into court of law in case the talks fail.
A teacher from Tabagwe Sector told IGIHE yesterday that some of the victims were getting back into their jobs since Monday but we were unable to verify the news by press time.
{{Legal disciplinary sanctions
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According the Presidential Order of 2014 determining modalities of imposing disciplinary sanctions to public servants, sanctions of the first category correspond with petty disciplinary faults according to their gravity. From the least to the heaviest, sanctions of the first category are warning and reprimand.
Sanctions of the second category correspond with serious disciplinary faults according to their gravity. They include delay in promotion, suspension for a period of three months maximum without pay and dismissal.
Article 14 stipulates “A public servant to be sanctioned by dismissal shall be the one who refuses to take oath as a public servant in accordance with the relevant laws; deserts his/her work without known reason or without authorization for a period of at least fifteen (15) consecutive days; is definitively sentenced by a court to a term of imprisonment equal to or exceeding six (6) months; fraudulently alters the content of his/her or another person’s professional file; has submitted among his/her credentials falsified documents in order to get recruited; steals at work; assaults another person at work; insults the head of his/her institution or his/her deputy or any other high official on the same or superior job level; commits a fraudulent act or omission aimed at favouring a candidate or putting his/her at disadvantage in course of recruitment process; requires, receives or offers donation or illegal benefit for provision of a service; harasses another person for the purposes of sexual intercourse and there are proof thereto; commits a gender-based violence at workplace,” it reads.
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