By Septimus senessie in Kono
The two headteachers of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) and God Is Our Light (GIO) primary schools at Saqueetown, Tankoro Chiefdom in Kono district have expressed utter dismay over the mining company, OCTEA Diamond Group, formerly called Koidu Holdings.
They say the company has failed to meet their deadlines for relocating the two schools to a new community as promised in the last academic year. The situation has left hundreds of pupils in a precarious situation.
The headteacher of GIO primary school, Aiah Edison Mbanga told Politico that the company had promised to relocate them before the resumption of schools this academic year which is already under way, but had failed to complete the construction of two classroom and office blocks and two pit latrines, describing it as disheartening, deceitful and insensitive.
Mbanga went on that he was greatly depressed over their “slow” relocation plan which he doubted would happen even in the next three months. He described their current school as a “death trap” for the pupils given that a 100-meter high hill of heavy boulders almost entirely engulfs the school.
Mbanga said that a year ago one of the boulders rolled from the peak and damaged one of their pit latrines forcing them to put it out of use by the children. He said the damage done to the school as a result of the activities of OCTEA's mining activity had seriously affected their enrolment this year with only 60 pupils.
“Parents are afraid of sending their children to the school” he said, and called on the company to fast track the construction exercise so that “we can leave this noisy and dangerous environment”.
Headteacher of the SDA Primary school, just few meters away from GIO school, said the company had almost completed the construction of their school but said they would not transfer there because “in the 21st century the company constructed a school without an assembly hall, a library and a teachers' quarter”.
Rubin Kamara-Fofie went on that there was no playground for the kids, the new toilets where pit latrines and most of his teachers had to travel an additional two miles to the new school every day. He threatened that they would not move to the new school until their demands were met citing the United Methodist Primary and secondary schools for girls whom he said were relocated without being provided with all the things promised by the company which he said never bothered to fulfil once the school had moved.
In a telephone interview, the Chief Communications Officer of OCTEA, Ibrahim Sorie Kamara, said the schools under construction were far better than those they replaced, and that all the facilities they were requesting from the company were not provided for schools constructed by the Ministry of Education. He said they were not going to rush things through and relocate them like they did to the UMC schools, something he said had come back to haunt them.
© Politico 11 October 2012
