By: Modou Touray
Unknown persons are reported to have broken into Brikama Lower Basic School, stealing valuable teaching and learning materials and vandalizing school taps.
According to pupils and teachers, this is a major concern which requires urgent remedy by the school management committee and other authorities.
Recently, 10 tap heads were stolen after the thieves vandalized and unplugged them. This is said to have caused water shortage, making pupils to the fetch water from neighbours.
“Since our taps were destroyed, water has become a problem for us. We need water to use the toilet and for drinking. It’s a major problem,” lamented Adama Ceesay, a pupil of the school.
Babucarr Dibba and Ousman Bojang, all pupils of the school, expressed outrage over the continuous theft at their school.
For Fatou Saidy, the act is a bad attitude and must end immediately.
“Our authorities should find a way out to end the stealing by outsiders. Sometimes, we come to class and find our learning materials scattered on the ground. It’s not only the issue of the taps. Water facilities must be well protected to avoid tampering”
Bakoto Jadama, a cleaner at the school, said she could not get enough water to cleanse the toilets accordingly. “For two weeks now, the toilet has not been well cleansed, however, the kids use it daily.
Masireh Sanyang, a teacher at the school, said effective teaching and learning is hampered by the unavailability of water within the school environment.
“We have no choice but to release the kids sometimes for them to access water. The community also need to be vigilant sometimes because it will be difficult to secure the surrounding.”
Lamin Jammeh, another teacher, felt devasted by the stealing in an educational facility and admitted that their frequent movement in and out of the classrooms in search of water, interrupts lessons.
“We move out of the school premises to get water. We spend 10-15 minutes doing that and even the congregational prayer is being suspended now. We now pray individually.”
This medium contacted the school administration for their reaction and they responded with a plea for the neighborhoods to be vigilant and report any suspected movements around the school.
The acting deputy headmistress 2, Ndey Fatou Jobe, is deeply disturbed by the theft cases as she called for collective responds. “It’s not our wish to close school before the stipulated time but it’s due to the circumstances.”
The headmaster of the school, Mr Mustapha Jarju, spoke at length on the challenges confronting the school which includes frequent theft cases by unknown persons.
“We have 3000 pupils and 175 teachers in the school and the school is very large now. When we were using only NAWEC water supply, it was not enough which made us appealed for assistance from philanthropists who provided us with two boreholes.”
The chairman of the Brikama Lower Basic School Management Committee, Mr Balla Jabang, spoke of his committee’s commitment in ensuring that the teaching and learning environment is comfortable for pupils, teachers as well as the school administrators.
Brikama Lower Basic School is said to have only one night watchman securing the entire school.
