By Tokpa Tarnue, tarnue82@gmail.com
Voinjama – The old adage “you’ll reap what you sow” came full circle recently at the Akol Loyal Academy in Voinjama city, when the school honoured 30 students who scored above 90 averages during the first marking period.
During the program held on the institution’s campus, students received certificates of honour and book bags for their superior academic performance.
According to Mr. Kolubah B. Akoi, who is also a Liberian journalist, the book bags and other items were made available by Mr. Joseph B. Dorbor, a resident of the United States through his NGO Computer for Kids International (COKI) based in the USA.
Interestingly, of the 30 students, 20 of them were girls. The highest average was scored by one student Esther Toe of the 5th grade with the 99.5.
Journalist Kolubah B. Akoi, who is also the CEO of the school, said this is a tradition of the school since its establishment a year ago.
Close up shot of some of the book bags given to students that made high marks
“Our institution is very passionate about creating a conducive and competitive environment where academic excellence amongst student remains high,” CEO Akoi noted.
He said he feel so good to see girls outnumbering boys in the classroom defeating the old argument that boys were superior them girls academically.
Mr. Akoi also disclosed that of the over 700 students enrolled at the school, over 400 are girls and is encouraging Liberian to help more girls remain in school.
“I personally had gone in various communities encouraging parents to send their girls to school even if they did not have the fees to pay immediately,” he emphasized.
Journalist Akoi is however calling on PLAN LIBERIA and other NGO running girl’s education programs to extend such program in his school that has one of the highest girl’s enrolments in the county.
He further used the occasion to encourage Lofans to donate any school materials to his school to enable the school continue to encourage students by creating an academic excellence environment.
The Akoi Loyal Academy was established in 2017 by Kolubah B. Akoi, a Human Rights journalist trained by the Canadian based Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) and it is based in Lofa County.
Since its establishment, it now has a little over 700 students making it the fastest growing and lowest fees paying private elementary school in Lofa where students pay $3,500 Liberia per year or $25 USD.
The school is also the home to over 200 students whose parents can’t effort to send them to school and are there free of charge at the sometime with over 100 more being sponsored by good friends in and out of Liberia, according to Mr. Akoi.