Newsletter 1, August 2003
It is the end of the first school year at Rogbonko School. Exams
are over and the results are being printed and will posted in the
schoolhouse over the coming month.
It is remarkable to think that the school opened its doors to the
first intake of pupils just over seven months ago. Since then the number
of children attending has swelled to 109 spread across four classes. The
schoolhouse has been extended once already and now houses three classes.
And just as soon as the rains are over (in October), the villagers plan to
build an extra wing to the schoolhouse to accommodate Form 3, who up until
now have been taught in the church.
Rogbonko School is now the only fully functioning school in the
area. One of the challenges facing the school committee is the increasing
number of children from nearby villages being sent to them. Teachers in
the government run schools are often paid sporadically, if at all. Perhaps
understandably significant numbers of teachers in Sierra Leone have given
up going to work and returned to farming to in order to provide food for
themselves and their families. This is why the main priority of the
Rogbonko School Trust is a commitment to paying the salaries of the
teachers for a minimum of at least three years and hopefully for much
longer.
The school committee is currently in discussion with the Forum for
African Women in Education (FAWE), to see how they might help in the
running of the school. FAWE (an award-winning Nairobi based NGO) fund and
run a number of non-fee paying primary schools particularly for
war-affected children, as well as skills training programmes and a teacher
training programme. A representative of FAWE has visited Rogbonko to
advise the school committee, and the organisation have agreed to monitor
our project. More importantly, our four teachers will be enrolled on the
next teacher training programme to be held at the Teacher Training College
in Makeni, about twenty miles from Rogbonko.
In the years of war so few children received any education at all
that the school has confined itself to teaching a limited syllabus,
choosing to concentrate on the three R’s, with additional classes in
environmental studies, social studies, creative and practical arts and
physical education. Currently there are four classes (Forms 1a & 1b,
Form 2 and Form 3). With the funding of the teacher’s salaries now
looking secure, plans for the future under discussion include the addition
of Form 4 and a new class teacher. The Trust is also considering the
purchase of sports equipment (currently the school owns a single football)
on behalf of the school. In time it is hoped that we will be able to
replace the existing structure, made of mud brick and thatch, with
something more permanent.
A consignment of books donated to school was shipped last month
ready for the new school year. The villagers have determined Rogbonko
School deserves a uniform of its own. The degree of pride children in
Sierra Leone take in their school uniforms – often hand sewn by parents
– is something of a national trait. The plan has general approval and
all that is needed is a decision on the colour.
The salaries of two of Rogbonko Schools teachers are now being
sponsored by individuals who have kindly established standing orders in
favour of the Trust. We are asking for a commitment of just £35 a month for
between one and three years. Think what a tremendous gift sponsoring a
teacher would make for Christmas or a birthday.
On behalf of the Rogbonko Village School and the Rogbonko Village
School Trust, I’d like to thank you all your
support without which much of this would have been impossible.
“And
will there be singing in the darkness in the times of darkness. Yes, there
will be singing in the times of darkness.” Bertold Brecht.
Aminatta
Forna
Chair, Rogbonko School Trust
