By Anthony Levay in Bo
St Andrew's Senior Secondary School (UCC) in Bo has postponed the conduct of its first term examination for the Senior Secondary School section due to lack of stationeries, the school’s authorities said.
There are allegations that the board chairman of the school refused to approve a request for the acquisition of stationeries.
Principal of the SSS section of the school, Aruna Kamara, said the Chairman of the school board, Joseph Bawah, refused to sign the requisition they made for the exams which are set before the Christmas break.
“Since last week, I had made a requisition for stationeries for exams, laborers and teachers that are not on the payroll. We normally pass that requisition through the finance committee. So, I contacted one of the finance committee people, Mr Lavalie, saying I have prepared the documents,” Bawah explained,
He added: “The Board Chairman hasn’t signed the document. He said a lot of things. He said he had given us five packets of paper since the beginning of the year. And I asked him if he expected us to run the school from first term with five packets of papers.”
Politico contacted the Board Chairman, Bawah. He said he would not comment on the issue and referred us to Lavalie. Lavalie could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, Principal Kamara said his relationship with Bawah had not been smooth since he took charge.
“I have had a lot of constraint with the board, especially with this Board Chairman,” Kamara said.
Students who received the news last week from the Principal in a school assembly expressed disappointment.
“We are sad that we have received such news. We had prepared all night to start writing our exams,” a student said.
St Andrews Secondary School is a government assisted school which is owned by the United Church of Christ Mission. It is one of the few schools where the government has spent millions of Leones to do rehabilitation.
According to the school calendar released by the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, all schools should have conducted their first term exams before the Christmas break.
The school authorities are not sure what will happen next. Like the students, they are equally confused on the way forward. If the exams are not conducted in the next two weeks, the school could enter the New Year with a backlog of examination which could be a nightmare to grade students.
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