Hike in registration fees has led to some parents and guardians in Grand Cape Mount County refusal to register their children in public schools for this academic school.
According to reports from the county, schools’ administration are charging up to L$3,500 for registration; an amount which parents and guardians claim is too exorbitant. Due to this high increment in the registration, many parent and guardians are calling on the government to intervene as their children may not go to school this year.
Schools are scheduled to be opened for academic year, 2022/2023 on Monday, September 5, 2022 across the country.
But in reaction to the report, Education Minister Dao Ansu Sonii justified that fees charged per student in the primary division are not new and are meant to feed the kids daily during the course of the academic programming.
He claimed that the fee remains the same and nothing has changed therefore parents and guardians in the county should reconsider their decision and get their children registered for the school year.
According to the report, the parents and guardians are claiming that they were not given advanced notice as per the increment in the registration fees therefore they would prefer for their children to sit at home.
They told the local media in the county that during last academic school year (2021/2022) they paid L$1,000 per child or student in the primary division as opposed to L$3, 500 this year.
In related development, Bomi County’s Chief Education Officer has vowed not to heed to any plea from Superintendent Adama Robison on behalf of delinquent public schools’ teachers who are in the habit of abandoning the classroom.
Samuel Koenig said doing this 2022/2023 academic school year which begins this Monday, 5 September nationwide, he will not hesitate to sack any public school’s teacher in Bomi who receives a monthly salary from the government and does not want to work.
He told the media early this week in Tubmanburg that teaching is a noble profession therefore those who got convicted into it must have the love and passion for it because nobody forced them into it.
Koenig alleged that during the just ended academic year public schools teachers in the county were escaping classes for other engagements perhaps doing the same teaching job in private or faith based schools in the county which does not augur well.
He said during the course of those happenings whenever he allegedly took complaints against the delinquent teachers to the Superintendent he (Robison) always pleaded with him many times to let it go.
But this time around, Koenig vowed that this pending academic year will be different from the immediate past ones because many public schools’ teachers are going to be dismissed without fear or favour and he shall stand by his decision.
However, efforts made to reach Superintendent Robison proved unsuccessful but multiple sources in the county informed this paper that many public schools’ teachers involved are engaging in “double-dipping.”
According to sources, there are nearly 100 schools both private and public in the county but there are more private than public therefore those delinquent teachers are always found in those schools.
“What the county education officer said is correct. Government cannot be paying people who call themselves teachers but do not want to work therefore let them give a chance to those who want the job,” one resident said.
