By Mohamed T. Massaquoi
Five school pupils from the Holy Rosary Secondary School in Pujehun have been arrested for smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol during school hours.
The girls were busted in a bush around their school in Pujehun town, and in their possession were an assortment of illegal items that also included palm wine and tramadol as well as cooked foo-foo, according to sources.
The incident sparked outrage over the uncontrollable use of drugs, alcohol and marijuana in the district.
The Deputy Director of Primary and Basic Education in the district, Ibrahim Yaya Fofanah, bemoaned the incident and accused the girls of wasting government's resources.
“Holy Rosary Secondary School girls are doing everything possible to destroy the success of the Free Quality Education,” Fofanah told Politico.
The all-girls secondary school, which was founded and run by the Catholic Mission in Sierra Leone, is a Government Assisted school and therefore a beneficiary of the government’s flagship free education program which makes it a recipient of school fees subsidy. In addition to this, the fact that Sierra Leone government places high premium on girls education makes the matter serious for the authority.
All the girls who were caught are expected to write the BECE examination for the first time.
They have all since been returned to school where they are under close supervision.
Pujehun has a history of drug and alcohol abuse. The Pujehun township is notoriously littered with make shift structures where people converge to smoke marijuana and drink cheap alcohol.
In 2013, the former District Chairman Council Sadiq Sillah stirred a huge controversy when he decided to demolish these make shift structures. But they have since resurfaced.
Holy Rosary Family Primary School, situated less than 25metres to the main police headquarters, is one of the major spots for drinking and smoking in the township.
Ibrahim Swaray, Chairman of the Civil Society coalition in the district, blames the situation on teachers and politicians for encouraging the practice. He said some of the teachers even partake in the action in front of the pupils.
“It is only in Pujehun district that you will see teachers drinking and smoking right in the presence of pupils and sometimes they even send them to buy [these substances]. For the politicians, when it comes to their political campaigning era, you will see them providing alcohol for our young boys and girls as a way of persuading them to gain political momentum. Even the stakeholders, who are also parents, sit in the same drinking bars with these pupils, which is not a good example for a closed community like Pujehun.
Fofanah, the district deputy education director, said he learnt about this latest incident of the arrest of the pupils on social media. He said he immediately brought it to the attention of the district Security Committee, which comprises the military, paramount chiefs, ONS, Police and other relevant stake holders. The Committee, he added, has demanded detailed information on ten other girls who were thought to have been involved, but escaped.
The Principal of the school, Philip Mando, refused to take an interview after several requests by Politico.
Civil society leader Swaray urged parents and teachers to take more responsibility by closely monitoring their children.
“The only way this ugly situation can be dealt with is for the education sector to monitor the teachers and pupils relationship even in the classroom. Most of these teachers, their action in class with the pupils are not good,” he said.
He added: “The community people are in the habit of encroaching school lands, which is also a major contributing factor as most people do sell alcohol and marijuana [under the nose] of the school authorities].”
Despite the incident, no tangible measure has so far been seen taken to deal with the growing drugs and alcohol problem in the district.
© 2019 Politico Online
