Students
of Old Yundum Upper and Lower Basic School in Kombo North had their classes
interrupted for three days following disturnace from an unbearable odour and
smoke discharge from a dumped garbage near the school perimeter.
The
stink, according to school authorities started since last week Wednesday
towards Friday, invading the entire school, prompting the area education
cluster monitor to instruct for a temporal shutdown of the school. The school
is said to have been on preparation for the National Assessment Test (NAT).
Headmaster
Famara M. Sanneh, said the reason of the temporary closure of the school was as
a result of the continues discharge of bad odour and smoke from the
indiscriminate dumped garbage near the school fence which, he said has invades
the entire school premises while interrupting normal school classes.
He
said the authorities, including the Alkalo, VDC, the school’s senior management
committee (SMC) and Brikama Area council were all informed about the dump site
challenge faced by the school, accusing the residents of the village for the
indiscriminate waste dumping.
“We
decided to temporary close the school following an instruction from our area
cluster monitor. This is because it will be impossible for us as
administrators, teachers and students to stay in such a horrible condition for
hours. How can an area of a school be selected for an indiscriminate waste
dumping by the very residents of the community who are having their children in
the school? We have informed all concern
authorities but to no avail,” he said.
Mr
Sanneh said the situation will hugely affect the normal contact hours a child
should receive from his or her teacher, while mentioning that the 8080 contact
hours allocated by the ministry of basic and secondary education will no doubt
be affected by the 3 days normal class interruption caused by the odor.
“The
temporal closure of the school will obviously affect normal child to a teacher
contact hours set by the ministry of basic education and this of course will
have the same impact on grade 5 and 9 students who are preparing for their
final (NAT) and GABECE examinations.
He
appealed to concern authorities to take steps in order to resolve the situation
permanently, saying they fear that if the situation continues is not addressed,
it will continue to interrupt classes.
