July 19, 2016 By Victoria Saffa
Some 45 pupils have graduated from the Royal Elementary Preparatory School, located at Lumley, west of the capital Freetown.
Among the graduates include 17 from Prep Six and 28 from reception.
The theme for this year’s graduation and prize giving ceremony was “The right to train a child”, which brought together parents, guardians, school administration and well-wishers together.
Speaking during the certification ceremony, the school’s proprietress Mrs. Rebekah Sesay said the school was founded on October 1st 2007. The school has now grown into such a wonder place for training of kids preparing them for secondary education.
“I used to go out for evangelism and during this period I saw lot of kids who were not going to school, but not that most pupils used to walk very far distance to access school. Lots of pupils within this community used to work long distances to attend school and the reason why I decided to open this school,” she said.
She said the opening of the school was also geared towards catering for orphans and underprivileged kids and street children within the community, adding that the school started with a day-care to ease the burden on parents who go to work but do not have a place to leave their kids.
Mrs. Sesay said the school has recorded several successes since it was established, including growth in infrastructure, committed and faithful teachers, excellence and academic performance and at the moment the school is putting up a four storey building.
She said despite the success recorded the school also faces series of challenges, noting that the school needs more structure to cope with the growing number of enrolment. “The school also needs twelve classrooms, library departments. We also need furniture, good toilet facilities, pipe borne water and improve conditions for our teachers.
“We will continue to provide the best of education for the pupils as we prepare them for both primary and secondary education. We currently have 206 pupils in the school and more are planning to enroll because of excellence performance.
The Head Girl of the school, Hannah Doris Tucker, in her statement said the school administration is disciplined and concerned about the growth of pupils and the school, noting that the teachers are always doing their work, counseling pupils who are not doing well while they talk to us to take our work seriously.
The school has a permanent building, but it is not enough for the grown interest within the community. Since I started attending this school, pupils who sat to the National Primary School Examination (NPSE) always emerge with very good results and they always score above 300.
She called on parents to pay school fees on time, noting that it will enable the school administration to prepare pupils in time. “We are a school with excellence performance and we will continue to stand out tall because the school administration is doing all it can to help in this direction,” she concluded.