February 26, 2021
By Ilyasa Baa
Both the Milton Margai School for the Blind in Freetown and Kono may shut down due to lack of subvention for the past six months.
A-Z Newspapers has gathered that these schools have been operating without the support of the Government of Sierra Leone for the past six months.
The Headmaster, Milton Margai School for the Blind, Salieu Turay informed his medium that he has incurred debts to the tune of fifty million Leones (LE 50,000,000) to run the school, noting that they were hopeful that their debt would have been offset out of the subvention they were expecting from the Ministry of Basic Education.
He added that even the said subvention would not be enough as it is in the region of thirty-five million Leones (LE 35,000,000) to cover for the three months period.
According to him, over eight hundred thousand Leones (LE 800,000) is needed and used on daily basis for preparing food stuff alone not to talk about the amount of money needed for transportation of pupils attending the normal schools, he asserted.
“ I am going to the radio soon to announce that we cannot be able to operate under these circumstances,” said the Headmaster.
However, it was observed that there was no veronica bucket for COVID-19 prevention in the entire compound and the Headmaster reacted to this concern by saying they cannot afford to buy any of these preventive materials because of the lack of resources at the moment.
In Kono, the School for the Blind is facing similar constrains with seven months passed without subvention and according to the Headmaster, Philip Deen Sesay, they cannot afford to provide three square meals for the sixty-one pupils in the school.
The school, just like the one in Freetown, which has about ninety pupils, lacks teaching and learning materials like braille papers as well as toiletries.
The Milton Margai School for the Blind was established in 1956. The sister school in Kono was set up in 1988 but approved in 1996. We gathered that since then over twenty-five students have graduated from University, having gotten the basis from the school.
The Minister of Basic Education, Dr. Moinina Sengeh had reportedly assured that the Ministry of Finance was working on the subvention issue and that would be settled as soon as possible.
