By Septimus Senessie in Kono
Ninety junior secondary school pupils of the Koidu Girls’ Secondary school (KGSS) in the eastern Kono district of Sierra Leone have received a year’s tuition fees of Le 75,000 and a CERTIFICATE OF MERIT from the school’s Old Girls’ Association in Germany. The scholarship was awarded to them after going through class exercises on the core subjects of Mathematics and English Language. Keynote speaker who spoke on behalf of the founder and the president of the association, Sia Evelyn Nyandemoh paid glowing tribute to the founder Catherine Finda Kambo and the entire membership of the association for the “paying back initiatives to the school they attended.” She said the idea behind the formation of the association was to fight teenage pregnancy, the rape of girls and to empower the girl child through formal education. Mrs. Nyandemoh told the beneficiary pupils to focus their maximum attention on their education saying: “Gone are those days when the kitchens were the office for girls, and when parents would sacrifice the education of the girl child to drop out of school and be married off for the education of the male child.” She said “this is the era of the female child” whom she said must aspire to occupy positions of trust in the country and elsewhere. She encouraged parents to encourage their children to be more committed to their academic work. Chairman of the Kono District Council also thanked the donors for “complementing our effort” in promoting girl child education in the district. Richard Abdul Rahman Koninga highlighted areas he said his council had been embarking on to promote education in the district. They included the construction of schools, provision of teaching and learning materials, support to girl child education and capacity building of teachers. The chairman admonished the beneficiaries to take their education seriously. Looking and sounding elated, the principle of the school, Bernadette Turay thanked the alumni for “remembering the root which they travelled through to attain their successful lives.” She recalled that last year the association also awarded another ninety scholarships to junior secondary school pupils of the school. He encouraged the pupils to emulate the footsteps of their benefactors in continuing their schooling up to university level. One of the beneficiaries, Marie Conteh, a JSS 3 pupil who is dreaming of becoming an accountant, thanked the benefactors for their support towards the attainment of “my dream to get educated”. She assured that “we will work harder and prove ourselves in our academic work to impress our donors”. Another beneficiary, Finda Koroma of JSS 1, says she is determined to become a medical doctor. She thanked the donors and promised to make them proud of her. She urged her colleagues to be studious at all times. (C) Politico 03/10/13
