By ALICK MVULA –
SCORES of Grade 12 pupils at Helen Kaunda, Kitwe Boys and Mukuba Secondary schools in Kitwe on Tuesday ran amok throwing stones and burning vehicle tyres after discovering that they had fake leaked examination papers.
The protests ignited soon after the pupils wrote their Biology Paper One examination, which turned out to be different from the supposed question papers they had obtained prior to the examination.
The pupils, immediately after writing Biology, mobilised outside their respective school premises and started throwing stones and other missiles, first on school infrastructure and later at nearby communities.
Kitwe police chief Lizzy Machina confirmed the riots that characterised the three schools around 12:00 hours on Tuesday.
Ms Machina said the pupils got furious when they discovered that the supposed leaked examination paper was in fact fake.
She said frustrated by that, the pupils took to the streets and started throwing stones as a way of expressing their anger.
“Police quickly moved in and dispersed the protesting pupils but no arrests were made,” she said.
Ms Machina said similarly, pupils at Ndeke Secondary School yesterday engaged in the same conduct when they found out that the Mathematics
Paper One examination which they had obtained before was not the actual one they sat for in the examination.
She said pupils immediately after the examination set out to demolish the school perimeter wall-fence but alert police officers prevented them from doing so.
Ms Machina said police rushed to the area and fired teargas canisters to disperse the rampaging pupils.
“We were lenient with the pupils because we don’t want to disturb them from writing their examinations,” Ms Machina said.
She said the police had since instituted investigations to bring the culprits to book.
Kitwe District Commissioner Elias Kamanga expressed disappointment with the pupils over their conduct.