Schlenker principal dismisses rumours
Port Loko, March 25 (SLENA) – The warning by the Minister of Education, Dr. Minkailu Bah (in photo) against all forms of corrupt practices in his fight for quality education in the country seems to have landed with a series of misconceptions, reports SLENA.
In Port Loko, for instance, a special meeting was summoned last week by the Principal of Schlenker Secondary Schools, Chernor Saidu Kamara (C S Kamara) for parents and guardians of Senior Secondary Schools Pupils in year 4, the class that is supposed to produce candidates for the West African Senior Secondary Schools Certificate Examinations.
Report reaching SLENA says the meeting came as a result of widespread rumours that the School has been banned to serve as a centre for National Examinations and that all the candidates for the pending West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations from that School have been disqualified.
It was further rumoured that the principal has chopped both the fees paid by those candidates and a huge sum of the school’s funds .He was also accused of a bad system of administration that has resulted to what is being referred to as the ‘degrading standards of the school’.
The principal therefore used the opportunity to inform the gathering that the school is not only up and running, but that it is one of the best in the district and the country as a whole.
He said Schlenker Secondary School has produced several prominent people in society and many more were in various institutions of learning including universities, adding that his administration will continue to cater for quality education in spite of what the rumour mongers might think about him.
C S Kamara said the school is one of the oldest in the district and remains a recognised centre for the West African Examinations. He said the school has a total of 258 approved candidates for the pending West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations, adding that the decision to disqualify certain candidates from taking the pending exams came from the Minister himself and was based on a particular aggregate and some core subjects.
He further spoke of a particular set of pupils who scored the required aggregates, but misused their right simply because they failed to secure their passport size photos as required by both the Exams Council and the ministry.
Principal C S Kamara was of the firm belief that it was this particular set of pupils that is spreading those baseless pieces of information in order to disrupt the determined ones from continuing their hard work.
He said there is another category of truants and irregular pupils who continue to pose as a threat to the school, citing a recent incident when the time table for the pending exams was removed from the school’s Notice Board in a bid to convince others of the baseless rumours.
On the issue of alleged misappropriation of funds, the principal said there is absolutely no funds from Government or the Mission, and that the bulk of what it takes to run the affairs of the School is from school fees as well as gestures from humanitarian organisations.
While thanking such organisations for providing them with a consignment of computers and other learning materials, he appealed to parents and guardians to encourage their children who were not able to fulfil the WASSCE requirements to re-take the Basic School Certificate Examination (BECE), as the Minister will not allow anyone to opt for the Senior School Certificate Exams without fulfilling the stipulated conditions.
HB/P’Loko/SLENA
Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!
© 2014, https:. All rights reserved.
