President Kabbah Opens Goderich Secondary School, MMCET Lecture Rooms
By Yusuf Alghali

10th October 2003-"Our chance to succeed as a country lies in giving our people hope, faith and exposure to sustainable skills," President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah said Friday, while addressing an assembly of educational stakeholders at the Goderich community some nine miles outside central Freetown.

It was a triple occasion for the President, which included his formal opening of The Lady Patricia Kabbah Memorial Junior Secondary School, the practising school for teachers undergoing training at the MMCET; the opening of six new lecture rooms at the nearby Milton Margai College of Education and Technology (MMCET) Goderich Campus, as well as the presentation of a 30-seater bus to the MMCET Polytechnic students' Union.

Speaking at the opening, renaming and dedication ceremony of the junior secondary school, named in honour of his late spouse, Lady Patricia Lucy Kabbah, the President noted that "educating our people to serve in various capacities continues to be a major priority objective".

He made reference to the recently published public examination results, which he noted, have begun to show improvement in quality. However, he also pointed out that "for increased quality output for a large number of students, the facilities must be improved".

The Head of State went on to observe that after a long period of neglect and destruction, the Lady Patricia Kabbah Junior Secondary School was the first new secondary school to be built by government in Freetown in thirty years. He also made it clear that he did not in any way influence the renaming of the school but thanked the organisers for what he called "such well deserved posthumous honour".

He recalled that his late wife was first and foremost an educator who also focused mainly on the education of the girl child, for which a trust fund now operates under her name. Some fifty girl-children across the country are currently benefiting from support provided through the Patricia Kabbah Memorial Scholarship Trust Fund.

The President, who cautioned against converting the school to private use, also expressed the hope that the institution would serve the children of Goderich as well as the neighbouring Lumley to Hamilton communities.

Chairman of the occasion, MMCET Principal, Dr. Denis Kargbo, said the school itself is a new development in the history of Milton Margai Teachers College, itself renamed a fewyears ago to Milton Margai College of Education and most recently to Milton Margai College of Education and Technology. He said the rationale behind the establishment of the school was to have a teacher training facility for the professional practice of trainees of the MMCET. He likened the previous situation to one where one trains surgeons in the medical field without a surgery for their practice.

He expressed his thanks to government and other benevolent development partners who made "this much-needed and much-appreciated addition to the MMCET practising school". However Dr. Kargbo disclosed that they at the MMCET were under pressure from the community to establish a senior secondary school section in the school. He said: "The college is already producing teachers at degree level who are teaching in Senior Secondary Schools nationwide. So we are more than prepared to meet the challenge of producing qualified teachers for the Senior Secondary School level of this schoolboth for internship and for paid work."

"It was during such visits that she showed great concern for children's welfare especially of the deplorable conditions of some schools. I can clearly remember how she almost wept when we visited one school on a wet day and found the children sitting on stones, with pools of water in the middle of all the classrooms. She was so moved that she immediately made her requests for such schools to be rehabilitated. I am pleased to say that her dreams had come true and all the schools visited, which were in bad shape, have now been rehabilitated and converted into modern permanent structures with proper furniture instead of stones," said Ms. Williams.

She added therefore that "it is indeed most fitting and in place, to rename a Junior Secondary School after her, in memory of her interest demonstrated in education, and as a role model for all of us, especially the girl child."

Following that event, President Kabbah proceeded to formally launch the six new lecture rooms located close to the picturesque ocean view of the nearby Milton Margai College of Education and Technology.

The President went on to note that as the number of tertiary students steadily increases, not all could stay in the limited available hostels. He said the provision of a bus for students generally was conceived by government as a means of enhancing access and timeliness for lectures, noting that a similar practice obtained today in virtually all tertiary institutions in the developed world, where thousands of students commute daily from their respective places of abode to attend lectures.

He indicated that the management and ownership of the bus would be entrusted to the students and that the idea was borne out of government's desire to provide practical training grounds with such responsibilities that would prepare them well for their future roles in society.

"Students are therefore expected to utilize the bus well on a cost recovery basis so that in a matter of time, they would be able to procure another bus or buses to serve them," President Kabbah said, but added that in the same vein, government in providing the buses, aims at injecting a spirit of healthy competition amongst students of our tertiary institutions, such that the possibility might be considered only for those who manage their bus programmes well to be subsidized in the future to procure another. He said government would therefore not be responsible for any repairs, fuel cost, tyre replacement and any other costs related to the running of the buses.