By Steven Bockarie Mansaray in Kabala
The Deputy Director of Education in Koinadugu says seven primary schools in the district failed flat in this year’s National Primary School Examinations. Abubakarr Kuyateh said three of the schools were in Neine chiefdom, two in Mongo chiefdom and one each in Kasonko and Sengbeh chiefdoms. He said that based on their findings they are all community schools and the teachers were not on a payroll. He further told Politico that the communities were not supporting the schools which he cited as “a major cause” for the failure of the schools. Last year, the district scored 95% passes overall, which dropped down to 80%. The District Council and the District Education Office say they intend to investigate the school authorities and the communities to get to the bottom of their poor performance. The parents and authorities of the affected schools have expressed dismay over the results. They plead for government to help approve their schools with trained and qualified teachers to help improve the quality of education of their children. Kalilu Bah, a civil society activist in Kabala blamed it on the government. He said they were preaching free and compulsory primary education but that the structures and manpower were lacking to support the system. He alleged that some teachers were using pupils to work on their farms since they were not on payroll and the community could not afford to pay them. Both parents and community leaders blamed the district education office “for not monitoring the schools” something the deputy director of education admitted to saying his office was constrained with inadequate staff and logistics to be able to monitor the 440 in the district “considering the poor road network”. © Politico 27/08/13
