EXTRA CHARGES FUSTRATING PARENTS OF JUNIOR SCHOOL PUPILS
We can acknowledge that the Basic Education Ministry is doing a lot to try and ease the burden of getting pupils into Junior Secondary School after successfully going through the NPSE. We have seen one press release after another, radio appearances by RASTA SENGS and his officials trying to steady the nerves and set the records straight as to what the official school charges are. All of that is commendable.
The reality on the ground is different and somehow we believe RASTA SENGS knows this. We are not sure what he is doing about it. Schools will re-open soon and parents are complaining. They are not complaining about paying some of the charges for normal things, the complaints are about charges that are clearly unnecessary and extortionate and the question is why is RASTA SENGS saying one thing while his principals, headmasters and teachers are doing the complete opposite much to his embarrassment?
We know of an encounter between one teacher and a parent in a prominent government secondary school. The teacher asked the woman to pay THREE MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND LEONES to cover admission and other charges. The woman simply left the place and never returned. This is a fact.
1. We want to encourage all Sierra Leoneans facing such a situation to do something more than going on social media and speaking to a journalist. The first step is to REFUSE to pay and then report the matter to the Basic Education ministry and insist that action be taken. Crying all over social media, creating a sensation will not solve the problem.
2. This is the time for the SCORPION SQUAD of the ACC to go into action. They will easily catch those killing our people in their hour of need. The government should NEVER allow this to continue because the blame will eventually be laid at their doorstep. Waiting to issue long press statements after the fact is bad business.
3. We call on RASTA SENGS to also do something about PRIVATE SCHOOLS. Some of them are paying too much attention to the profit side of things. Why charge parents for BUILDING PROJECT for example? When should parents be paying fees while also putting money in the pocket of proprietors to build their school? It’s not correct.
AND THIS SECOND OR THIRD CHOICE BIZNESS IS FAULTY
Before we leave education for now, we want to let RASTA SENGS know that second choice schools are not countenancing that arrangement at all. In that encounter we described above, the child in question had that particular government school as his SECOND CHOICE. When the parent called the teacher’s attention to that, he simply told the woman, “WE DON’T RECOGNISE THAT ARRANGEMENT”. So why are pupils encouraged to have a second, even a third choice when the schools are busy telling parents they don’t “RECOGNISE” that scheme?
There is nothing wrong with scrapping the system but there is everything wrong with keeping the system in place when it’s being flouted with reckless abandon. Let’s consider the encounter between that woman and the teacher at the government school as just one in many such cases. The teacher was so reckless, even brazen to the extent that he lost everything, including his senses. How did he know the lady was not an ACC SCORPION?
We are not asking for corrupt teachers to be paraded in front of the Cotton Tree but we are asking for the police or ACC to arrest them so we can try and convict them and eventually throw them out of the classroom. There are many good teachers out there waiting for PIN CODES.
SLRA ABANDONS DANGEROUS KEY ROAD JUNCTION
What is the story now from the SLRA and their friends over at the Road Maintenance Fund about the deplorable condition of that key road intersection linking Dillet Street, Fergusson Street and Pike Street? We are closing in on TWO MONTHS since one of the main culverts collapsed putting a section of that road out of use and dramatically increasing rush hour traffic in that area leading in and out of the west of the city.
Most big guys, including those at SLRA and the Road Fund Administration use Pademba road in and out of the city center. They only use the area in question when forced to do so if security measures are put in place along Pademba road but the vast majority of ordinary Sierra Leoneans use the Dillet Street – Pike Street area daily. Is that why SLRA ignores the problem? Are ordinary Sierra Leoneans now second class citizens in their own country?
This is not only about cars, even pedestrians run the risk of falling into that ditch and sustaining serious injuries. We are living in a country with no history of people suing public utility service providers and taking big compensation money off them for such carelessness so the best we can do now is to appeal to SLRA YET AGAIN to remove the danger from that place without further delay. Please we don’t want to hear anything about the unavailability of funds. Protecting the welfare of the people means we should look for money from any source to do this job.
Gento group solved the one at the former traffic lights location at Brookfields but Dillet Street was ignored. By the way, is the TRANSFORM WOMAN back in town from her much deserved holiday in her REAL HOME? We ask because we are waiting for an answer to our question of whether Dillet Street – Fergusson Street junction is not part of her imaginary TRANSFORM FREETOWN project, implemented by the so-called DELIVERY TEAM.
MENTALLY-CHALLENGED PEOPLE ON OUR STREETS – WHO CARES?
We are in sympathy with families that have to go through the pain of seeing their loved ones suffer serious mental health problems. Nobody wants to sees relatives or friends suffer mental health but mental health issues have been part of the human condition since creation. Conventionally acceptable normal behavior and appearances are replaced by very unpleasant traits as the disease eats up a sufferer. Many such people could be seen on streets in our major cities and towns.
Their often pathetic state has attracted sympathetic attention and revulsion that nothing is being done to get them off the streets and house them at the Kissy Psychiatric hospital, the only separate facility in the country that is providing care for mental health patients in the country. Many years ago, specially trained people would be seen along the main streets of Freetown taking roaming mentally-challenged Sierra Leoneans to the Kissy Mental Home as the place was called then. By so doing, the threat they posed to public safety and their often embarrassing appearances are removed. But now no one seems to care.
Last week along Congo Cross and close to an area where three schools are located, a Mentally-challenged woman, completely naked could be seen hunched over a garbage bin, a very embarrassing sight indeed. Three years ago, a mentally-challenged man called soldier went into a house around Berwick Street and stabbed a woman to death. The fellow was found hours later sleeping soundly at his brother’s house.
The impressive looking Kissy Psychiatry hospital is in operation now after serious investment but what is the relevance having such a hospital when majority of those who should be having treatment there are all over the place.
We need to employ people that can go out and bring these people to the magnificent facility where they can give proper care. No one would like to see their relative suffering like that in the full glare of the public.
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