To safeguard students and teachers from snake bite and sickness, and to keep the school proactive, Sinoe County’s Superintendent, Peter Wleh Nyensuah, has called for modern pit latrine construction and the supply of school material to the Voogbadee Public school in the county.
The school is an elementary school with four government teachers, and has about 265 students, according to Principal Nelson N. Pollyn.
The school, located at the outskirt of Voogbadee Town, is challenged. Cows and goats defecate regularly on the campus and in the corridor of the building, causing bad odor for the students and teachers.
Not only does the school face that nightmare, but Superintendent Nyensuah stood surprised and transfixed with uncertainty when the principal also revealed that the school’s staffers and students use the bushes to toilet due to the lack of pit latrine.
“You people go in the bushes to toilet?” Superintendent Nyensuah asked, pointing his finger at the bushes surrounding the school’s building. “Since you people are extending the school by constructing a new building, which has a pit latrine attached, I will make sure the pit latrine completes soon for the students’ well-being.”
Before Principal Pollyn explained the school’s ordeal, Superintendent Nyensuah had the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Education online to hear the challenges rural students and teachers face.
“Since 2017, we did not get any supply from government until March 2025,” Principal Pollyn stated. “In March, we received a box of chalk alone. For the past years, we have been buying the chalk ourselves. Sometime I go to Grand Gedeh County and lobby with principals there for chalk.”
He said that the school falls under the Juarzon Statutory Education District, and the District Education Officer is Alvin Garway. He also expressed poor school fee payment from parents, and called on donors and the Government of Liberia (GOL) to come to aid them materially and financially.
Due to the primitive condition of the school, which is against modern day lifestyle, Superintendent Nyensuah ensured the students and the school’s authority that he will intervene through his office for the County Education Officer and District officer to act promptly.
The school was discovered last month when Superintendent Nyensuah and an array of government officials and journalists canvassed district to district, town to town, for illegal miners to leave from the Sapo National Park before it is damaged completely.
