(MENAFN- The Post) MASERU - IRATE parents and students have threatened to shut down Hlotse High School to force the Examination Council of Lesotho (ECOL) to release this year''s students'' examination results. ''We will do everything to stop the school''s operations next Monday if they do not close it as we say,'' ''Malimpho Selai, a representative of parents'' committee, said.
Parents and students have given the ECOL 72 working hours to release the pending results or face a forced shutdown of the school.
Their 72 hours ultimatum ends tomorrow.
They want the ECOL to release both Junior Certificate and the Lesotho General Certificate of Secondary Education (LGCSE) 2019 results after it withheld them saying the Hlotse High School principal had aided candidates to cheat.
The ECOL also claims the principal, Moshene Hlongwane, did not forward the examination fees to the body after students paid.
Angry parents showed thepost payment slips showing that they paid the examination fees to the school.
Parents are angry that the ECOL says they have not paid the fees.
The ECOL has since withheld the school''s JC results and has told the stakeholders that investigations are on-going.
Hlongwane resigned on January 2 amid pressure from irate school board members and ECOL officials who quizzed him about the examination fraud that has affected both JC and LGCSE students.
The angry parents and students handed their petition, which includes their call for closure of the school until results are released, to the Leribe District Administrator Moseme Makhele last Friday.
Their other letters of grievances were handed to the Leribe district education director and the Leribe High School board on the same day.
''Our children did nothing wrong therefore their results should be released to allow them a chance to carry on with their studies,'' Selai said.
She said their children''s behaviour has changed rapidly due to stress of their unreleased results.
''If this means going to Maseru with buses to protest, we will go,'' she said.
''We just want the results out,'' she said.
Selai said they approached Hlotse''s Member of Parliament Keketso Sello over the weekend for intervention.
She said Sello understood their problems and vowed to take the matter to the Minister of Education Mokoto Hloaele.
Last weekend, Hloaele said he was told that examination results for students from Hlotse high school were not published due to unpaid examination fees.
He said he then gave the matter to the principal secretaries to resolve and provide a report on what exactly transpired.
He said he will not comment on the issue of shutting down the school.
Sello said he had discussed the matter with Hloale who told him that the issue was being addressed by principal secretaries.
He said Hloaele told him that after the principal secretaries are done with their investigations he will receive a report ''then take it from there''.
Sello said he told Hloaele that the matter was affecting innocent people.
He said he told Hloaele that for the sake of the students the results must be released immediately.
Efforts to contact Hloaele were not successful last night.
Nkheli Liphoto
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