…But WASH facilities, sitting accommodation still needed
December 20, 2016 By Joseph S. Margai
Courtesy of Concord Times publication on the predicament of the Ansarul Islamic Primary School at Foya Wulleh village, Kori Chiefdom, in the Moyamba district, a philanthropist from the United States of America has made it possible for the school to be transformed into a better structure, compared to the previous huts, which were hosting more than 200 pupils.
It could be recalled that pupils were previously occupying huts covered with palm fronds, while most of them were sitting on the bare floor. Concord Times carried a story which drew the attention of an American philanthropist, who took a copy of the publication and went in search of the school.
“We were at the school one day when we saw a white lady driving towards the school compound. She asked if that was Ansarul Foya and I answered in the affirmative. She took out a copy of Concord Times newspaper and told me that she was at the school because of that publication,” Sheik Ibrahim Jalloh, the head teacher of the school said last week in an exclusive interview with Concord Times.
Feeling a little relaxed at his Taima residence but seemingly worried over the possibility of coating the mud structure, which also lacks sitting accommodation, Sheik Ibrahim Jalloh, said the philanthropist had offered the school some money which they used to purchase seventeen (17) bundles of corrugated iron sheets (zincs).
He added that since the philanthropist left the village, they had not received any word from her and that they unfortunately did not established any contact with her.
“Before the money was given to us, we had already made bricks and transported some sand to the site. So, the community and the school administration mobilised and put up the structure,” he said.
He noted that the construction of the school was not supported by the Ansarul Mission or the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, reiterating that the project was solely supported by a foreigner, who felt so bad after seeing the kids sitting on the floor to acquire education.
“The major problem now is that we don’t have furniture in the school. We also have a challenge to plaster the newly constructed building. We are calling on philanthropists to help us so that we could get the future leaders prepared for the better,” he said.
He disclosed that the school lacks toilet and water facilities and that pupils always fetch water from a nearby stream which could not serve the community during the dries.
He said they were irregularly receiving supply of teaching and learning materials from the government, but acknowledged that they sometimes receive support from UNICEF, who provides them with some teaching and learning materials.
He disclosed that there were five teachers in the school but stated that three of them were not on government payroll.
Asked about the performance of the pupils in public exams, Sheik Ibrahim Jalloh, said all through the three years his pupils have participated in the National Primary School Examinations (NPSE), they have been getting 100 percent success.
He disclosed that there were over 215 pupils attending the school, adding that it was currently serving over five communities in the chiefdom