PHOTO: A rather frustrated public school Principal, Madam Rachel Duncan
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
One hundred school going children in the Mien Clan community, Todee District in upper Montserrado County have been deprived of education due to the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and shutting down of the only academic facility in the area.
The Gballey Kamara Public School, which is in the Mien Clan Community, has been closed for the past five months due to teachers’ refusal to work with the school because of the lack of salaries in addition to the presence of the Sande and Poro bush school within the school’s vicinity.
Sande and Poro are the female and male traditional secret societies, which activities have been suspended by the government while academic activities are in session. Traditional leaders had earlier agreed to abide by this measure.
In an interview with the school’s lone teacher and principal, Rachel Duncan, she narrated that the closure of the Gballey Kamara Public school is also linked to traditional activities within the area, and the Ministry of Education’s refusal to equip the school and pay teachers who are assigned to the school.
According to Madam Duncan, before the opening of the academic school year, she held meetings with elders and traditional leaders in the district to appeal to them to relocate the traditional school to another location.
This, she said would allow teachers and students have full access to the school’s compound, something she said would help take away fear from the pupils and teachers of being forcefully initiated into the traditional secret society. When this is done, both the students and teachers will be able to focus on academic activities.
“When I came last year, most of the children, especially girls where between the ages of 14 and 16 were in the first grade. That’s the reason I told the traditional leaders to relocate the traditional bush because those are the same girls they will want to recruit to join the bush,” the Gballey Kamara Public School, Madam Duncan expressed her frustration.
The presence of the traditional school is said to be posing serious threat and it makes it difficult for the school to conduct smooth operation, because girls from the institution are the ones who are mostly recruited to join the Sande society.
Madam Duncan said, she has had for the past academic year, over One Hundred and Seventeen students attending the school. Adding, this academic year has been challenging for her because she had to teach alone.
“The Ministry of Education told me to recruit Volunteer teachers and I recruited two boys but they left because they were not getting paid and I had to do it myself,” the school’s Principal added.
According to her, the Education Ministry does not provide teachers for the school, she will have to leave and go elsewhere to continue impacting others.
“Last year, because there was no teacher, I had to teach myself and this year, i can’t continue,” Principal Duncan revealed.
According to reports, the community holds sixty-two villages with thirty-two connected to the school
Varney Kamara, the town chief of Mien Clan told reporters that young children from across the community are being deprived of education due to the closure of the school which attend to over thirty villages.
The town chief speaking with reporters called on the government of Liberia through the Ministry of Education to assist the school by hiring instructors so as provide better education for children in that part of Liberia.
“The principal lives here with us, but no instructor. She alone cannot teach from ABC to six grade because I got sixty-two villages in this place, and thirty-two is connected to this school” he lamented
“I am asking the DEO and everyone to assist the school because our facilities here isn’t up to standard and there is no chair for the children to seat,” Chief Kamara urged.
Mr. Kamara averred that children within the community will not get educated if the government do not step in to assist the school and better the only government learning institution within the area “with the traditional school in the same vicinity, it is difficult for the school to have a smooth operation”.
She however, called on the government through the Ministry of Internal Affairs to intervene by meeting with traditional leaders in the areas to relocate the traditional bush school, far away from the community center point.
Speaking further, Madam Rachel Duncan said that the only government learning facility over time has been lacking behind as a result of the lack of classroom teacher.
“Since my assignment to the district, I have been the only teacher, teaching in all the classes and the students are over one hundred,” Principal Duncan revealed.