We reported last week about the forced circumcision of 25 pupils from Oderai Primary School in Soroti Sub-county, Soroti District in eastern Uganda. The exercise, which targeted pupils of 11 and 15 years, is said to have been facilitated by a non-governmental organisation.
The exercise was a traumatic one for the pupils some of whom had adverse reactions to the circumcision. According to their parents, one pupil disappeared while another refused to return to school.
The Ministry of Education should intervene in this matter to establish how the school administration managed to overstep their mandate to the extent of sanctioning such a life-changing medical procedure on underage individuals without their parents’ consent.
In fact, the entire district administration should be investigated because the school head claimed she released the pupils due to the involvement of district medical workers.
The official claim is that the district workers were merely doing their duty as per a government programme sanctioned by the district. However, if there are complications arising from this exercise, ultimately it is the parents who will bear the cost of medical bills and emotional trauma.
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The hurried way in which the circumcision of the Soroti pupils was done raises questions about the objectives of those who carried it out. Is this a district wide exercise that they intended to carry out in other schools? Authorities in the ministries of Health and Education should come out and pronounce themselves clearly on this exercise.
URL: http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Editorial/Check-forced-circumcision/-/689360/2881298/-/rjd7hbz/-/index.html
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