At the Kemo Mane secondary school in Mansoa, in northern Guinea-Bissau, clashes broke out this Monday between police and students protesting against the new principal appointed by the government, leaving five people seriously injured.
The information was conveyed to Lusa in Bissau in a telephone conversation with the sector administrator (the highest authority in the state), Mansoa Fernando Yala, an eyewitness to the clashes.
“I was informed that students were protesting at the high school, I went to the scene and became involved in the situation. Students threw stones and bottles at the school,” Yala said.
Clashes began during the transfer of files between the previous and new principal of the secondary school, Kemo Mane, appointed by the Guinean Ministry of Education.
The new principal of Mansoa High School is Adulai Jha, a politician who previously worked in the sector as an administrator and faced opposition from the population.
A source from the Kemo Mane High School Association, who wished to remain anonymous, told Lusa that “Adulai Jha has neither the moral nor the academic qualifications to be a director.”
According to administrator Fernando Yala, students threw stones, bottles and even burned tires on the high school premises, interrupting the dossier handover ceremony.
“The new principal had to barricade himself in the high school for more than two hours before he was rescued by security forces,” Yala said.
While trying to evict Abulai Jha from the high school, two students and three policemen were injured by stones, the administrator added, adding that they were being treated at Mansoa Hospital.
A police rapid response team (PIR) has left Bissau and is in Mansoa, where people say they threw tear gas grenades near Kemo Mane High School.
The same reports indicate that the replacement director, Lassana Sagna, was arrested and taken to Bissau.
Kemo Mane Secondary School stands out in Guinea-Bissau as the first public educational institution to introduce self-government, an initiative that involves students’ parents and guardians paying for the school’s upkeep.
The goal is to ensure that teachers appointed by the Ministry of Education are paid so that they do not join repeated strikes in the public education system.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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