Thursday, May 5, 2016

High school pupil in Uganda sets his dormitory on fire after the principal decided to ban DStv after learners watched too much soccer and movies.


An angry high school learner in Uganda set his dormitory on fire with petrol out of revenge after the principal of the Masaka Secondary School banned DStv after learners' grades started to slip over watching too much soccer, movies and other television on DStv.

First reported by UGO, a furious Shafiq Bugembe now cooling off behind bars in a Masaka police cell, torched his dormitory after principal Hajj Musa Mukasa Mpungu banned DStv in the dormitory.

He used a bottle of petrol to start a fire at his school's dormitory.

It wasn't the first time that MultiChoice's satellite pay-TV service was banned in Masaka Secondary School, and also not the first time that upset learners plotted to take revenge.

It was however the first time that a destructive arsonist plan was carried out to vandalise the school and its property for not being allowed to watch DStv.

Apparently the pupils at Masaka Secondary School don't see DStv and watching TV as a luxury and a privilege but as a right.

Interestingly, the parents appear to be on the learners' side too and wanted the school and principal to "restore" DStv and lift the ban on watching DStv programming.

The Masaka Secondary School's parent teacher association chairperson Jamil Miwanda said it advised the principal to switch the DStv back on and rather limit the time students are allowed to watch DStv, but the principal was adamant that the TV and DStv must remain switched off completely.

Parents, as well as alumni asked Uganda's education authorities to get rid of the school's principal and to transfer him to another school.

"I switched off the DStv because the students were devoting long periods of time watching soccer, movies and other programmes and it was leading to a drop in performance," principal Hajj Musa Mukasa Mpungu reportedly said.