October 21, 2021
By: Hafsatu Z Bangura
The Laura Dove Vocational Secondary School has in recent times been at logger heads with the outgoing principal Mr. Coker thereby creating division and bitterness among teachers of the said school.
A fraction of teachers raised concerns over the issues of the state of the school and the battle for supremacy between the principal and vice principal positions respectively had brought about the division of teachers.
In a press conference organized by some of the aggrieved fraction of teachers, they expressed their anger over the issue of the outgoing principal and the recent vacancy positions of principal and vice principal.
According to Mr. Abu Bakarr S Bah a teacher at the Laura Dove school, Vacancy positions were recently published for the post of principal and vice principal of the school, of which some teachers were interested and applied to the board of management of the school but unfortunately the said teachers applications were interfered with.
He said these teachers are Senior Teachers of the said school, as there documents were confiscated and during the short listing they were not invited, as interviews were conducted gone Saturday.
According to the Board these teachers did not submit their Appointment Letters but according to one of the aggrieved teachers he said he submitted his Appointment Letter to the board and was signed by the outgoing principal himself and later on told him that his letter was not attached to the form.
Mr. Bah furthermore exposed the hidden activities of the school, which is being used as a church center, as the classrooms and staffroom are being used on a daily basis for the conduct of church activities, a garage car park center and also a carpenter shop of heavy duty machines of which furniture’s are being manufactured in the school compound thereby disrupting the process of proper learning.
The act could also be interpreted as a sabotage of His Excellency’s agenda for free quality education for all pupils considering the fact that the school has now become a business center rather than a place of learning for school going children.
Another concerns raised by these teachers is the lack of electricity and lack of proper school furniture’s and an unhealthy toilet facility of which teachers and students use, as the toilet facility of students is a bore hole filled with so much rats and awful smell emanating from it.
The Aggrieved Teachers said they had brought the matter to the outgoing principal on several occasions to look in to the environmental safety and comfort of students in the school but little or no action has been granted to the plea and cries of the teachers nor the pupils who suffer and are likely to be exposed to infectious diseases due to poor toilet facility are not been heeded to.
Mr. Kanu a teacher of the said school is also of the opinion as regards to the condition of the school; he said the responsibility of teachers is not only to impact knowledge to pupils but also to make sure that the environmental health and well-being of children is paramount to them as students suffer from good hygienic toilet facility.
Mr. Kanu continued that the position of principal and vice principal brought dissatisfaction to senior teachers of the school which has had effect on the teaching and learning process of students.
He maintained that teachers are aggrieved and they are calling on the Ministry of Education, Teaching Service Commission (TSC), and all stakeholders in the educational sector to come on board and restructure the whole system of the Laura Dove Vocational Secondary School.
Another teacher also said upon reports to the Ministry as to the regards of the advertised positions a schedule interview was to be conducted for teachers on a free and fair basis but nothing has been said about both the interview and the Vacancy position.
Later a team of police officers showed up and arrested members of the press and the aggrieved teachers, however the outgoing principal denied to knowledge of the press conference and summoned the police to disrupt the conference.
