April 15, 2021
By Mohamed M Sesay
A good number of school pupils at government assisted school called KDC situated in Daru village, Tunkia Chiefdom, in the Kenema District, have chosen farming activities over schooling due to the fact that, the school is faced with serious under staff teaching capacity. A-Z Newspaper has gathered that the school only has one teacher who also double as the Head teacher which has resulted to many school dropout in that part of the country.
Talking to A-Z News, a concern citizen of Daru Village, Tunkia Chiefdom, Kenema Distrist Lahai Landa Sama disclosed that the school has a permanent structure but the biggest challenge of the school is that the school only has a single teacher to teach the whole classes. He added that the only teacher with the name Teacher Sheku Bao, serves as the Head Teacher for the school, and he is also responsible to teach the entire five classes of the school. He noted that sometimes that single teacher can be exhausted to teach all the classes effectively.
He added that when Teacher Bao is teaching class five for example, He said the rest of the other classes from class one on to class four will have to go outside to play because there is no other teacher to teach them adding that, Teacher Boa has to do this rotational teaching until the end of the school hours due to the acute shortage of teacher in the school.
“We are in a Free quality Education launched by president Bio’s New Direction Government across the country. The President has a vibrant Education Minister in the person of Dr. Moinena Sengeh who has been tasked with the responsibility of making sure that THE Free Quality Education is implemented effectively without any lacuna. I first go to the Daru township and asked most parents why their children are in town when school times session is in progress, but the parents informed me that they have issue with education in that part of the country because they lacked teachers to teach the pupils. So they prefer their children to stay in town or go to their respective farms instead of going to school to just play and return without being taught”, said Mr. Sama.
Lahai Landa Sama expressed his frustration over the appalling educational situation in that part of the country. He asserted that there is nothing like quality education in that part of the country and therefore, appealed to government and other State Actors for an instantaneous intervention
“We want to put this to the attention of the government so that they can do something about the existing situation of KDC school in Daru, Tunkai chiefdom, Kenema District. This is the plight of the people here in Daru and they need help from government especially in the area of recruiting teachers for the school”, he appealed.
The single Teacher who also doubles as the Head Teacher of the School Sheku Bao also expressed that he is faced with untold constraints coupled with persistent fatigue to teach all the classes. Sheku Bao reiterated that the under staffing in terms of teachers in the school has discouraged many parents and that, most parents would rather take the children to the farm instead of sending them to a school with no effective teaching capacity. He appealed to State Actors especially President Bio being that the Free Quality Education and the Human Capital Development is his government flagship programme, to lend a help hand to the KDC School in terms of recruiting teachers. He concluded that the effective realization of the Free Quality Education and the Human Capital Development will only be possible if trained and qualified teachers are in schools of which KDC is yearning for such.
Bintu Bao is one of the senior Pupils of the school and has this to say, ‘’ I want to cry to the government to help our school with teachers we only have one teacher for the whole school. The one teacher we have cannot teach all the classes in the school”, she cried.
