The boarding section of a secondary school in Hiyalla Payam of Torit County in Eastern Equatoria State has been closed due to lack of a feeding program, an insufficient number of teachers, and insecurity in the area.
The school has now been forced to operate as a day school that does not favour learners from far-off areas.
It was established as boarding in 2011 to accommodate children from the neighbouring villages. Before the Covid-19 lockdown, parents discussed plans of resuming the boarding section and made some contributions but the plans did not take off.
Alfred Ajayo, the Headmaster, told Radio Tamazuj that the school cannot now manage students in the boarding section.
“The school was a boarding school, it is no more a boarding school. It is feeding that made the school collapse as a boarding. A few students succeeded in collecting food for themselves, but currently, we don’t have any food for the students and there are no boarding students. We are working now on day students,” Ajayo said.
He lamented that besides lack of food and shortage of furniture, many teachers have deserted their jobs at the school due to insecurity, leaving the school with only five teachers whom he says are too few.
“We have a challenge of sitting capacity, there are no desks. All the desks we brought when we opened the school got broken and some were stolen. Another problem is teachers. We don’t have teachers, we have five teachers currently and these are people from Hiyala village,” the headteacher explained. “Any teacher from other villages or other areas are unwilling to come to Hiyala because of the current insecurity situation. Teachers are a big problem because, without teachers, many students will not be willing to come to school which has no teachers.”
Jennifer Ikoto, a senior two student says she is observing the situation at the school until Monday.
“I have not yet registered. We go there but we don’t find teachers and again there are no students. I will register on Monday if possible or else I will go to look for another school,” Ikoto said. “The teaching was going well but it was Coronavirus that kept people away but now there should be teaching and we should not waste time. We urge our parents to help discuss this with the teachers. I want to tell them that if you have not heard that schools have reopened, you need to come.”
Odumtula Hilary Okumu, the director for basic and secondary education in Eastern Equatoria State’s education ministry, said the state government does not currently support boarding schools.
“You know, currently students are not registered in boarding by the government. Most of the schools which are now said to be boarding are mainly supported by the parents. As a government, we are still looking here and there to support such secondary or primary schools. Most of the learning boarding centres, either Primary or Secondary, you people are hearing about are either private Institutions or Church supported,” Okumu said.
The Minister of General Education and Instruction, Lopeyok Sammy Aperengole, when contacted over the matter said he will assess school visits to explore the situation and seek help thereafter.
“Yes, we have been planning to go there to check those schools. I even applied for the fuel from the government side and hopefully when I come to Torit, I will get that then I will visit all those schools,” the education minister said.
Hiyalla Payam, the former Torit East County, has recorded a lot of insecurity over the past years.