By Paul Lamin in Kenema
Authorities in Kenema especially education officials are condoning the negative attitude of some ill-gotten business people to exploit our innocent children and their poor parents in the name of celebrating international day of the African Child scheduled for June 16 every year.
The most unfortunate part of the story was the practice of entertainment industries using innocent girls in their school uniforms from various secondary schools in Kenema city as advertisement tools to propagate their messages.
Concerned parents who spoke to this medium expressed disappointment at the educational authorities especially the Deputy Director of Education , Madam Frances Nana Kamara and her staff for not taking proactive measures to correct the awkward trend in which these things continues to happen in the educational sector.
A parent, Ansumana Kebbie, said it was very embarrassing for him when his three daughters from the St. Luke Commercial Secondary School reported that they were given tickets of ten thousand (Le 10,000,00) each for the June celebration at the Plaza. He stated that the entire June 16 celebration was a money making venture by some unscrupulous individuals who wanted to get money from poor parents and guardians. Mr. Kebbie appealed to educational stakeholders to handle the June 16 commemoration with care or else the plan of the government to promote education in the country will be hijacked by few money loving groups of individuals.
When contacted, the Deputy Director of Education East Madam Frances Nana Kamara said the whole idea of June 16 Commemoration has been taken out of context by school authorities. The Deputy Director stated that the June 16 commemoration should be in line with what happened in Soweto in 1976 where children were killed in South Africa but it was rather unfortunate that people are using it for child exploitation.
She said some groups of individuals met her with regard to the June 16 celebration sometime back but was quick to refer them to the Inspector of schools Prince Ngegbe who made negotiations with the show promoters.
Prince Ngegbe disclosed that he issued a note to one social club that approached him on the June 16 celebration. He added that it was rather unfortunate that this same group, the Ultimate Family used the children in their school uniforms to do adverts for activities outside the June celebration. Many people saw the move by these social clubs in Kenema to use these school pupils especially girls as a very negative development and therefore called on the New Direction of President Bio to put a stop to this practice.