125 Pupils For Class II Alone
By Joseph S. Margai in Freetown, Sierra Leone
Head teacher of Roman Catholic Primary School in Sahn Malen town, Joseph S. Nallo, has bemoaned the unavailability of enough classrooms in the school, leading to the over-crowding conditions of the classrooms.
Mr. Nallo, who was speaking to our Correspondent in Sahn Malen town in Pujehun District last Saturday, said class II alone has 125 pupils, thus making it very difficult for the teacher to control the class.
“Every teacher must be able to control and maintain decorum in the class but if it is over-crowded, the teacher would not be able to monitor every activity that will be taking place in class. The pupils will also be disturbed by their classmates instead of concentrating on what the teacher teaches, thus making it difficult for effective and efficient learning to take place in such classroom,” the head teacher said. He added that in order to salvage the problem, they needed three additional classrooms.
Mr. Nallo, who was transferred to the school one year ago, said he inherited numerous constraints from his predecessor. He said they are suffering from inadequate sitting accommodation as most of the benches and desks have been damaged.
Founded in 1949 by the Catholic Mission, the school, which has an overall roll of 568 students, has only 24 textbooks.
Head teacher Nallo noted that there are 10 textbooks on primary Mathematics, four on Language Arts, five on Social Studies, and five on Science.
Like many schools in rural communities, Mr. Nallo said there are nine teachers including him in the school of which four of them are untrained and unqualified and only four of them are on the government-paying voucher.
“Teachers draw examinations questions above the knowledge of the pupils because of the lack of learning materials and the fact that some of them are untrained and unqualified,” he said.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST), through the President’s Recovery Priorities and the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), commenced a nationwide school-feeding program targeting 1.2 million pupils in over 2,307 out of 5,991 primary schools across the country.
Pupils were to be fed one meal a day, twice a week (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) in all governments and government-assisted schools. School Feeding Program Director, Sylvester Meheaux, said, “The school feeding program was intended to increase enrollment, attendance and retention in schools.”
However, Mr. Nallo said in 2016, they only benefited from the program once which was the second term, claiming that the food items that were supplied were not commensurate to the number of pupils in the school.
He also said there was no school fees subsidy for 2016 and he had to use his salary in order to augment the situation.
“In September 2017, we received the school fees subsidy for only one term after we have taken loans for the running of the school in the previous year. In fact, we were told that the subsidy was for first term of last year,” he explained.
He revealed that they are operating in a poor sanitary environment as people are in the habit of dumping their garbage in the school compound at night, and also revealed that there was a very poor toilet facility in the school.
Performance Based Funds for teachers and administration are sent to government and government-assisted schools every term, which comprises three months, but Mr. Nallo said they only received the fund once in February 2016 and since then, they have never received it.
Despite the numerous challenges highlighted by the head teachers, there had been some major success stories.
“In 2016, out of sixty-six (66) pupils sent to take the National Primary School Examinations (NPSE), sixty-three pupils (63) passed clearly with the person that took the first position getting aggregate 304,” he explained.
He said he has succeeded in ensuring that teachers are now willing to teach, prepare their lesson plans, and go to school on time and keeping records, adding that teachers have also prepared teaching aids in the classrooms so as to fast-track learning.
“The School Management Committee (SMC) has also been coming to the aid of the school whenever the need arises. The relationship among the teachers, pupils and parents, is very cordial,” he noted.
