Abu Thoronka the Central Zonal Chairman of the Sierra Leone Teachers Union (SLTU) has said that they want the Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MEST) to increase school subsidies that is to be paid to schools and set a deadline for the payment of all teachers salaries and their school subsidies.
He made this statement on Wednesday 23rd, May at the Saint Edwards Primary School in a head teacher’s council meeting for the Western area, Central and Mountain district.
He noted that subsidies are insignificant as far as the figures were concerned comparing them to the present economic situation in the country.
Citing that if you have a roll of 300 pupils and they give you those subsidies it would not do anything.
The Zonal chairman stated that government is talking about quality education, and quality education is one of the issues that should be backed by early payment of teacher’s salaries and school subsidies.
“These are the components of quality education but teachers are left suffering financially in the school while the school administrators don’t have a single cent to buy chalk so that the teachers can teach the pupils” he said adding that “this is very disheartening.”
Thoronka emphasized “We are concerned about quality education because we know that education is the pivot where all developmental aspects revolve, without it there will be no state.”
He defined Education as the backbone of development and therefore people should not meddle with it. He pointed out that those in higher authority and international communities know that education is important because it builds a country and if so we are the builders of it.
The chairman acclaimed that we should be given a lot of preferential treatment..
Chairman Thoronka stated that if the school system comes to a standstill MEST and the Finance Ministry are responsible neither the head teachers nor the teachers will be held responsible.
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