KISIMIRI Secondary School, which topped the 2016 National Form Six Examinations, has one thorn in the flesh. Its more than 1,120 students and 60-plus teachers need to tread carefully -- lest they get attacked, or even eaten, by wild animals.
This is due to the fact that it is
located on the slopes of Mount Meru -- within Kisimiri Chini Village of
Uwiro Ward in Arumeru District, in addition to lacking protective
fencing against the adjacent Arusha National Park; what with all its
wild beasts, especially the big carnivores of the likes of lions,
hyenas, and leopards.
“Wild animals always pass here when
meandering from the Arusha National Park; hyenas, especially; these
jeopardise students’ safety and school security,” explained Kisimiri
Headmaster Mr Emmanuel Kisongo.
He was receiving 50 rolls of wire mesh
from the management of the Arusha International Conference Centre
(AICC), which has donated to the work on erecting a fence around the
school. The rolls measure about 50 metres each, which means that the
whole package will cover 2,500 metres of the proposed perimeter fencing.
And as if that is not enough worry, some
of Kisimiri villagers are known for their cannabis sativa (bhang)
planting notoriety --posing another threat to the security of the
students.
According to the AICC Protocol and
Public Relations Officer, Mr Rodney Thadeus, the 50 rolls of wire mesh
have cost more than 7 million/-. “The school’s management had approached
the Arusha International Conference Centre requesting support for the
school fencing project”, he said.
Mr Thadeus pointed out that the donation
from AICC had nothing to do with recent results that placed Kisimiri
“on top of the nation’’. “We had already responded to the school request
in purchasing the wire mesh even before the National Examinations
Council released the results,” he defended.
The school’s Head of Curriculum, Mr
Valentine Tarimo, said to sufficiently fence the entire school grounds,
200 rolls of the wire mesh materials, equivalent to a perimeter
measuring 10,000 metres around or nearly 10 kilometres in length, are
required.
Kisimiri Secondary School is situated on
an area covering over 4.8 hectares. Due to the small size of the Arusha
National Park, giraffes, cape buffalos, zebras, warthogs,
black-and-white colobus monkeys, blue monkeys, flamingos, elephants and
many other wild animals, share space with the students.
The animals that threaten the students
and teachers most are the ferocious hyenas, lions, leopards, buffaloes
and, occasionally, elephants.
Slithering snakes, on the other hand,
add to the scare. Kisimiri School has 1,117 students, among them 617
girls and 500 boys. Out of these, some 200 students attend Form Five and
Six. There are 68 teachers at the moment, 32 of which are female.
No comments :
Post a Comment