Students sent home after fire destroys classrooms at Tigoi Girls School in Vihiga
What you need to know:
- The fire started at around 7pm Wednesday when the students were taking their evening meals.
- A tuition block housing six classrooms, a computer lab and the games store got burnt.
- Fire fighters from Kakamega County arrived two hours late.
- The school had asked parents to pay for the extra tuition to compensate for time lost during music festivals held in Kisumu early this month.
August holiday tuition at Tigoi Girls School in Vihiga County was disrupted after a huge fire razed the school on Wednesday night.
The fire, whose cause has been attributed to an electric fault, destroyed classrooms.
At least 50 students were in school at the time of the incident.
The more than 1,000 students were expected to arrive at the institution yesterday to start their 'tuition’.
Parents in the school had been asked to pay Sh2,500 for the sessions despite the ban by the Ministry of Education that outlawed holiday teaching in the country.
The school had asked parents to pay for the extra tuition to compensate for time lost during music festivals held in Kisumu early this month.
The fire started at around 7pm Wednesday when the students were taking their evening meals.
A tuition block housing six classrooms, a computer lab and the games store got burnt.
Parents and government officials visited the school on Thursday morning to assess the extent of the damage.
TRAUMATISED
The school’s Principal Mrs Emily Luchera, was away from the school at the time the fire broke out.
She told the Nation Thursday that the incident was 'traumatising’.
Mrs Luchera arrived in school in Thursday morning and was briefed by her deputy, Mrs Mildred Lidejere.
“I am traumatised,” the principal said when Nation sought her comments over the holiday tuition ban that the school flouted.
Property of unknown value including students’ boxes, books, desks and computers were destroyed in the fire.
Some students were injured during a stampede while fleeing from the classrooms following the fire.
NO TEACHER IN SCHOOL
“No teacher was in the school. We were serving food.
“Smoke was coming from the classrooms. In the confusion, we begun running out of the school compound,” a traumatised student told the Nation.
The deputy principal also confirmed that she was not in the school when the fire broke out.
“I had just left the school for Mbale when I was called at around 7pm,” she said.
A meeting with education and public works officials was held following the incident.
Fire fighters from Kakamega County arrived two hours late.
It took more than an hour for members of the public to put out the fire.
The girls’ school is located off the busy Kisumu-Kakamega highway, next to Gambogi Town.
