By Abdulai Gbla
Minister of education, Dr. Minkailu Bah, has threatened to chase out and close down all private schools he considers to be “mushroom schools” in the country.
He made the resolution at a meeting organized by the Conference of Principals in Sierra Leone at the Government Rokel Secondary School in Freetown.
Dr. Bah claimed that “most of these so called private schools do not have proper documentation”, adding that that was against the laws of Sierra Leone.
“We will not sit back and watch these mushroom private schools spoil the education system in the country”, the minister warned and said they would about to take strong actionagainst such institutions.
Dr. Bah assured that very soon private schools should have to authenticate their private status, taking into consideration the facilities they offer and the manner in which they operate.
He said he had report from reliable sources that in the Wellington axes alone there were over thirty private schools.
Responding to a question that many private schools would admit pupils even before the national primary school and the basic education certificate examinations, BECE, results were out, the minister said that was why they had made it a policy that pupils who were to sit to the West African senior secondary school examinations, WASSCE, must produce their BECE results first.
“No pupil will be allowed to sit to the WASSCE examinations without their BECE results”, Minister Bah insisted and said that even private schools were not an exception.
He said that this had been a policy and his Ministry was ready to pursue it to the letter.
“This is why the NPSE and the BECE examinations fees are free of charge and no parent should pay for them”, the Minister stated, adding that it was good to open and operate a private school but one must follow the laid down procedures to do so.
(C) Politico 28/11/13
