The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has recently engaged pupils and teachers of the Baptist Junior and Senior Secondary Schools at Allen Town on issues of bribery and corruption.
In his opening remarks, Principal, Baptist Senior Secondary School, Moses P. Conteh said, he is pleased with the presence of ACC staff in the school to speak on issues of solicitation of bribes, teachers’ irregularity in school and extra charges levied on pupils.
He stressed on how the educational standard has drastically fallen in Sierra Leone thereby calling on teachers not to allow education to deteriorate.
Conteh commented on the prevalent corrupt practices in the educational sector, which are; teachers collecting moneys for assignment, “sextortion”, and extortion. He admitted that, these issues are largely contributing to the poor performance of pupils in external examinations nowadays.
He used the opportunity to encourage pupils not to give bribes, cheat in exams, but, to reject, resist and always report all forms of bribery and corruption in the schools. He further advised the girls not to exchange sexual favours for grades.
Junisa Sankoh, Public Education Officer, ACC, addressed pupils and teachers on the concept, and objectives of the Pay No Bribe (PNB) campaign. He explained the relevance of the PNB bringing out clearly reasons for which the campaign must be embraced in schools. Sankoh said the Pay No Bribe (PNB) programme is funded with 4.7 million British pounds from the UK Government in financial aid and technical assistance.
Sankoh called on pupils and teachers to imbibe sound ethical values, and display tenets of integrity, transparency and accountability.
By Betty Milton
Monday May 22, 2017.
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