Lakes: Pankar secondary school closes down over fee dispute

September 25, 2015 (RUMBEK) – Authorities in Lakes state’s Yirol West county have closed Pankar senior secondary school following a dispute over fees.

Commissioner Majak Ruei Angong has since been accused of interfering in educational management issues in the county after students were reportedly asked to pay a further 150 South Sudanese pounds (SSP) in school fees.

“[The] commissioner and school administration are asking extra school fees, which is conflicting [with a] previous agreement that each student [is] to pay 200 SSP,” said student representative Solomon Bol.

He alleged that the commissioner had ordered the school be shut down after the entire student body refused to pay the extra 150 SSP on top of the agreed amount.

Now commissioner is asking students to paid 150ssp but entire student refuse to paid and that force commissioner to order school close down” said Bol.

“We are 430 students and if we paid those money we believe that those money will go direct to [the] commissioner’s pocket and not [to the] ministry of education,” he said.

“This demand of payment is not [in the] government’s interest, but [in the] full interest of [the] commissioner and his administrators,” Bol added, saying each students had already paid 75 SSP for chairs.

Lakes state students, activists and traditional leaders have abandoned the Lakes state administration, accusing the leadership under military caretaker governor Maj-Gen Matur Chut Dhuol of direct involvement in a cycle of revenge killings across the state.

(ST)