Sierra Leone: Sexual Mugs, Extortion in Schools

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Concord Times (Freetown)

5 August 2008
Posted to the web 5 August 2008

Mohamed Vandi
Kenema

For a very long time now, I have been monitoring several stories on the pages of some of our local newspapers about sexual attacks on young girls of school-going age and extortion from boys.

The recent frequent occurrence of these anomalies indicates that the unethical practice of educated people, who call themselves proficient teachers, is fast becoming rampant in many schools within the country.

The front page story for the March 19th edition of Trumpet newspaper had the caption: 'Sexual harassment causes chaos in school'. In that story, some parents and guardians of Evangelical Model High School students, stormed the school premises on Melon Street in Freetown that particular week, to protest the continuous sexual harassment and extortion of money from their children by teachers.

Also in Kono, my colleague Fuad Kamara wrote so many stories on underage girls being assaulted sexually.

On 7th May 2008, this newspaper published a story on its second page with the caption: 'Teacher arrested for impregnating pupil'. In the narrative, a teacher at Ansarul Islamic Secondary School was involved, and has ever since, been arrested for allegedly impregnating a seventeen year old school-going child of Yengema Secondary School in Kono.

It is worthy of note to state that some religious leaders are no exception in the perpetration of this immoral behaviour. 'Catholic priest allegedly deflowers girl 13' is the exact caption of a story published on the pages of this newspaper in its May 18th edition.

This story explained that a Catholic priest in Blama, allegedly had sex with a 13-year old girl of the Saint Joseph Secondary School in Blama thereby depriving her of her virginity. 'Sources disclosed that the girl was fond of visiting the priest and it was during one of her visits that the priest deflowered the girl' the paper revealed.

When the priest was contacted by the reporter, he was quoted as saying that 'the incident might be true and that is why I am hiding for it to be resolved.' Several similar cases of sexual assaults on pupils of both primary and secondary schools have been reported and dealt with by respective Family Support Units in Kenema Kailahun and Kono.

Colleagues in the electronic media too - Radio UN, Eastern Radio in Kenema and Kiss104, Bo- have aired several news about such assaults and extortion of money from pupils.

On several occasions, authorities of the Ministry of Education, Youths and Sports, have raised concerns about the illegal behaviour of some teachers. Very recently, the Deputy Director of Education East, John Swaray, admonished school authorities to desist from collecting money from pupils. He said the practice is a violation of the education ministry's policy.

Esther Kamara of the Family Support Unit disclosed that her department has, so far, taken hard decisions on people who sexually assault underage girls especially those that are still in school.

"We have treated these cases without compromise. Such matters are always charged to court without delay. The establishment of this unit has helped to minimise the high rate of sexual assaults on young girls," she said.

But despite all these efforts from journalists, police and education ministry officials, the collection of money and sexual assaults on pupils are still out of control in many of our schools. So in a bid to unearth the major cause (or causes) of these prolong practices in schools, I contacted some of the pupils and teachers.

Joseph Sesay, a Senior Secondary School pupil, explained that the theories of 'cash and kind' and 'food for work' exist for boys and girls in virtually every secondary school. "Sir, we the male pupils are really in trouble with the teachers. We are compelled to satisfy our teachers in cash since we cannot perform the 'kind' aspect of the principle," he said.

Explaining further, he said: "This means we pay stipulated amount of money for each of the subjects so that we can maintain our passing grades otherwise failed marks will dominate our results. The girls on the other hand score their passing marks enormously in 'kind' or through 'food for work'. When girls don't afford to pay the money, they are mostly required to visit the houses of their teachers to provide the food for work." Sharing another view, Bockarie Sellu of the Islamic Secondary School said female pupils impose themselves on teachers so that they can pass all the subjects they offer. "Girls mostly boast of passing all their subjects whenever we seat for an examination even though we are very conscious of their incompetence in passing class examinations. We the boys are sufferers because our knowledge can no more determine our promotion to the next class," he said.

Mary Mansaray subscribed to Sellu's idea saying what they call 'teacher-pupil relationship' exists in most of the schools. The Senior Secondary School pupil admitted that girls mostly have sexual intercourse with their teachers for examination marks adding that such instances have even led to a possible situation wherein teachers get their legally-wedded wives from the classroom. In another interpretation, she said this act implies that some teachers engage with their pupils for future husband and wife relationships.

"The problem is not only with the teachers but to we the female pupils because we some times influence them to fall in love relationship with us. Sometimes, when they are teaching in class, some female pupils expose some parts of their bodies as a way of drawing the teachers' attention. Our teachers are like any other man and could be influenced as well," she said.

A former student of Methodist Secondary School Kenema disclosed that female students are sexually harassed in all co-educational institutions. Mariama Kekura said a school girl could love her teacher for various reasons namely to always top in her subjects that is getting pass marks even when it is obvious that she has failed; being provided with lunch; and sometimes to secure a permanent relationship.

"This relationship I am talking about, which exists in schools between teachers and pupils, is not a hidden game. Some times, relatives of the girl encourage the teacher into their homes. But the most dangerous thing about such relationships is that it takes off the attention of those pupils from the classroom as they are always with the conviction that they will score passing grades with or without their academic performance," she said.

Though the act is a professional misconduct, says Musa Sheriff, a teacher in one of the secondary schools, "I cannot overrule the idea that teachers don't make love to their pupils. It happens in any community where men and women live together." For the collection of money, Sheriff has this to say: "It is also definite that it happens in every school taking into consideration the earning power of teachers which is very low. These monies are collected by some teachers in the form of practices. But one thing we should also not forget is that pupils themselves sometimes opt for the payment," he said.

After gathering much information from various sources, I realised that sexual assault and extortion of money from pupils are really prevalent. The question that rings in my mind is: What necessary step should be taken to minimise the practices? This question needs to be answered by all peaceful citizens as a way of contributing to the abolition of these illegal practices.

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