Fish Town, River Gee County — In Tutuville Community, Central Fish Town lies a makeshift structure where pupils sit on the dusty floor reciting the alphabets printed on worn-out faded chalkboard. The mud-wall structure is falling apart but children go there everyday to learn.
Report By: Ben T.C. Brooks from River Gee County
But a new order by the Ministry of Education’s office in the county will see the school shut down in the next three months. This has left parents bewailing the possible ramification.
Founded August 2020 as a study class, the school will later be named in honor of Liberia’s Chief of Protocol, Madam Nora Finda Bundoo. The principle, Rev. Wilson Y. Yegbeh says Madam Bundoo was unaware that a school is named in her honor until a year ago.
“I named the school in her honor Finda Bundoo because of her many contributions and developments she’s carrying on in the County and country as a whole,” Yegbeh explains.
“She got to know about the school in her name when the president visited the county, it was when, through Radio Gee management, she invited me and we talked about the school being in her name and she promised to relocate the school with a good structure within the period of one year.”
Mr. Yegbeh insists until the relocation is done, the over 400 pupils currently enrolled will continue learning in the delipidated building.
“We can’t stop the school from operating within the period of one year as she promised, so we will continue until the real structure is completed and turn over which will be used as a junior high school, while this area will still remain as an elementary school for the sake of the kids that are in this community and its surrounding,” he said.
Scores of parents preferred the school due its “low and affordable fees”, the principle said.
However, River Gee County Education Officer has mandated that the school be shut down due to its deplorable condition. The CEO has given the school administration 90 days to either refurbish the makeshift building of close it down.
This has prompted both the administration and parents alike to launch an appeal, stressing that the school should remained open “for the sake Liberian kids that the institution is impacting”.
Catherine Chea, a mother who has two children attending the school, says despite the deplorable condition of the facility, the “cheap school fees is a big help for we the parents”.
“Right now, if the people close down the school, my two children that are attending there will not attend because I don’t have money to pay their tuition in different school because of the hike in fees,” she decried.
“At the same time paying their motorbike transportation every morning to go and come including recess, I will not be able to afford as a single mother”.
