By Prince J Musa in Kenema
The District Coordinator Free Quality Education in Kenema, Abdul Karim Vangahun has expressed dismay over the desertion of schools by teachers and pupils at Faama Nomo chiefdom, Kenema district.
In an interview with politico on the 18th January 2022, the District Coordinator said that it was during his routine monitoring of schools when schools reopened that he discovered that since the reopening of schools on the 6th of January this year, both the teachers and pupils have not been attending school at the Nomo junior secondary school.
He said after discovering the abnormal situation, he convey emergency stakeholders meeting at Faama, the chiefdom headquarter town where he invited all the teachers that are assigned to the school, adding that, during the community engagement he was told that the children had been initiated into the Bondo and Poro secret societies for both boys and girls.
Vangahun said the Deputy Director of Teaching Service Commission and the Deputy Director of Basic Education have been informed for further action on the said incident.
“No semblance of teachers and pupils were present in the school including furniture,’’ he said.
He added that his investigation shows that the children did not even take the first term examination and that the office will have to take stringent action against those teachers that have abandoned their station since they were not forced to apply to be teachers and that they were willing to go to that school when recruited by the government.
He stated that the sustainability of the Free Quality Education should be a collective responsibility of everybody because the development of the nation lies in education and as such, any progress toward the education of the people needs to be taken in good faith.
Vangahun said the Ministry of Basic and Senior School Education is working hard to introduce remote allowances for teachers in remote communities to serve as additional motivation for them.
The District Coordinator stated that the Paramount Chief of Nomo Chiefdom PC Alfred Kanneh Swarray has made several reports on such situations in the Chiefdom.
Speaking to Politico, the Deputy Director of the Teaching Service Commission in Kenema, Tamba S Bokarie said they already sent a team to Nomo to know why they abandoned the school and that it is based on the outcome that the Ministry will act with immediate effect.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (19/01/22)
