Following the just concluded corruption admission scandal involving six principals of secondary schools in Freetown, another bombshell exploded at St. Joseph’s Secondary School for the same wrong reasons, with heavy casualty on the suspended Principal, Alberta Demby. According to close sources, Alberta ran out of luck for the second time this year when Ministry officials found that despite the earlier investigations, the classes at the secondary level are still stuffed beyond the actual number submitted to the Ministry of Education and Teaching Service Commission (TSC). The excess in admission beyond the actual number proposed and given to the Ministry is often driven by personal gains with a wide appetite for ill-gotten wealth through bribery and corruption. In this case, it has been alluded that Alberta submitted the wrong class lists to the authorities’ concern, other than the number of pupils she admitted. The scheme itself amounts to high-level corruption and, by all intents and purposes, undermines President Bio’s Flagship of Free Quality Education, the thrust he had built on since he came to power in 2018. Above all, it justifies the hues and cries of parents, who had alarmed the public about paying huge amounts of money to enable their children to gain admission at the school. Suppose the recent allegation is true and impeccable, as the previous investigation proves. In that case, the Ministry and the ACC should ensure recovery of the monies taken from parents on the extra admissions cases made for the period under review. The investigation should be extended beyond the three years, fines levied with asset forfeiture, and put them in community service in reflection on the Commissioner’s action against teachers caught in examination malpractices in Freetown and paraded at the Cotton Tree years back.
Excess school admission is generally a well-plotted, calculated, and orchestrated pay-for-admission scheme in which parents are made to pay thousands of New Leones to get their children admitted. This pattern has been clandestinely run by some principals and their accomplices, who aided and abated the Principals in their schemes.
The authorities concerned need to take stringent measures to prevent such a criminal enterprise; otherwise, the incessant criminality will continue unabated with impunity at the expense of the pro-poor, who could not make the SL 5000 to 7000 demanded by the preposterous principals. Substantial punishment is required as a critical reminder of the consequences of crossing the line and distorting monies from poor parents. It is necessary to protect society from their wrongdoing and avert a repeat.
It would be recalled that six principals undermined President Bio’s Free Quality Education scheme by bloating classroom intake and collecting huge amounts of money from parents for admission. According to sources, the principals collected unreasonably between Le 5000 and 7000 for admission and bloated the classrooms against the required number, especially during SSS1 admission. They used their positions of trust to exploit poor parents, whilst the President, in his magnanimity, introduced Free Quality Education for all to help the pro-poor.
The ACC and the Teaching Service Commission investigated the issue. At the end of the investigation, the principals were suspended for three months. Still, as pressure mounted and criticisms were levelled at the decision, the suspension was extended to six months.
However, there has been a clarion call for more action to be taken against certain principals by the magnitude of corruption in consideration of their length of service, otherwise, the punishment of a six months suspension of a high level corruption is nothing to write home about. This is because the punishment is not commensurate to the corruption scandal. The period under review for which the six Principals have been suspended is three years; imagine three years in which they receive between SL 5000 to 7000 per pupil for over 100 pupils per year. With the amount of monies accrued, it is a disservice to this nation for any investigation team to ask the suspended principals to pay about 80m each, as alleged. If we are serious about fighting corruption, the principals should be asked to refund all the money robbed of citizens in the past since some of them have built houses out of the said monies. Such houses should be seized if they cannot pay the money stolen from poor parents in cash. Some have held their principal position for years beyond the three years under review or even before 2018. Sources say there is a clarion call for years to be investigated.
In the recent investigation as reported above, Alberta Demby, one of the six suspended Principal Schools, is in another scandal of the same corrupt practice for which she is under suspension, despite the investigations conducted by the ACC and Teaching Service Commission found her wanting cum the Pay-for-admission scheme for the academic year 2023 and 2024, quite different from the previous investigation. As it is, the latest investigation for classroom stuffing is not known to the public, but we expect Ministry officials to bring it to the ACC and the public for further action.
In conclusion, this medium has been reliably informed by close sources that another corruption-related scandal has been unearthed at St. Joseph’s Secondary School, and it involves Alberta Demby, who is on suspension for corruption-related offences. Sources say she lied to Ministry officials by submitting class lists of currently admitted pupils in the school, but a recent head count proved that the number goes beyond the lists submitted to the Ministry. Simply put, she admitted more than the agreed number she gave to the Ministry.
