By Mabinty M. Kamara
Pupils of the Selenga Junior Secondary School in Dambala, Bo district, southern Sierra Leone have stopped schooling after a heavy downpour of rain accompanied by heavy storm left the school building unroofed.
Reverend Father Rowland U. OKoru, Manager of schools in Selenga told Politico that on the night of the 16th May 2021, the community experienced rain fall with thunder and lightning. And in the morning, they noticed that it has caused devastation on some church structures and other buildings including the school.
The Selenga junior school is said to be an extension of the Roman Catholic Primary School which functions as a government assisted school in the chiefdom. According to Fr. Okoro, the school is a chiefdom institution that serves more than ten communities in Selenga including Dambala town and that the situation has forced all the pupils to stay home.
“All classes have stopped because we cannot continue to sit the children in that building unroofed. We expect both rain and heat directly from the sun which are both not conducive for learning. And the most worrying part of the matter is that it is an examination center for NPSE which is expected in the next two weeks,” he said
He added that there are pupils who are expecting to take the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) due in the next one month and that all revision classes to keep the pupils busy have been affected by the disaster.
He therefore called for swift interventions from government and other authorities involved to help them get back to school so that they resume classes without much interruptions in the upcoming examinations.
The 2021 National Primary School Examination (NPSE) according to a statement from the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary School will take place on the 28th of May 2021.
Just last week, another disaster caused by storm was reported at Sulima in the Pujehun district which led to the destruction of properties and inflicted injuries on some residents who were hit by the fragments of flying zincs from roof tops.
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