March 3, 2016 By Mohamed Massaquoi
The Executive Director of Caritas Freetown has said his institution believes in quality education for children across the country, adding that that was the reason they have been working with local communities to provide education.
Rev. Father Peter Konteh made the statement while addressing pupils and members of Russell community, where Caritas Freetown, with support from UNIDAS MANOS, constructed a ten classroom block for pupils.
Father Konteh said the Russell Technical Secondary School was exclusively selected after an independent research on the needs of pupils and their academic outputs over the years, which he said was outstanding and remarkable.
He noted that the school is located in a remote community in the Koya Rural District, yet the Russell school was worth investing in, especially as when the school has produced quality students over the years who are now at various tertiary institutions.
He added that the responsibility of Caritas, like any other non-governmental organization, was to compliment the efforts of government in boosting standard of education in Sierra Leone.
“We want quality education for our children and we all know that it is the responsibility of government to construct schools and provide conducive learning environment for our children. As an NGO, we chose to construct the Russell Technical Secondary School so that children from this part of the country can have better and quality education,” said the Catholic priest. “That is what all of us are yearning for and a good number of these children here today will come out as better citizens in future. We need to provide them with the best of education.”
He called on the community to continue supporting the school and to make good use of the facility.
Principal of Russell Secondary School, Joko C.R. Venn, said he was very pleased with the support from a faith-based organisation, adding that the facility would not only benefit the current generation but also the unborn.
He said it was a dream fulfilled as facilities were not enough to house pupils, adding that the new structures could help increase enrolment dramatically from 500 to 1500 pupils.
“We have devoted, trained and qualified teachers who are always ready to serve these children. I am very proud of them. To the management of Caritas, this is a joyous moment to us as administrators and I want to thank them very much for their humanitarian support to the school. We have been doing well in public examinations,” he said.
“We want to do more in the sciences but the school lacked laboratory and other facilities especially for the science pupils. We hope and pray that this good relationship will continue. Father Conteh, Ishmael and the rest of other members of the team, I pray that God will richly bless you all for the good work for our community” he concluded.
Handing over the newly constructed building, Madam Marta Mariesaez of MANOS UNIDAS called on pupils to take their studies seriously, noting that education is the key that unlocks every door.
She said the young generation are the future and must be catered for, the reason she said they decided to help the school.