Authorities in Uganda have shut down the boarding portion of a primary school in the central Mubende district after seven students claimed that the school’s caretaker had sexually assaulted them.
According to local media, the caregiver entered a guilty plea to the allegations last week in court and is awaiting sentencing.
Joyce Moriku Kaducu, the state’s minister of primary education, claimed on Sunday that the overcrowding in the classroom had created “fertile ground” for student abuse.
According to the Daily Monitor website, the school’s 350 boarders slept in five cramped rooms on triple-deck beds.
“I want you [school management] to tell the parents that you have been operating an illegal boarding section and no guidelines were being followed,” the minister said when she visited the school.
She also faulted local education officials for not inspecting schools.
Schools in Uganda require a government licence to operate boarding sections.