The Saint Anthony Infant School, a government assisted school, does not have enough furniture for pupils to sit to observe social distancing.
The Head Teacher of the School, Esther C. Amara told Premier News on Thursday that, lack of sits has made it difficult for them to observe social distancing during school hours as prescribed by the government.
The school which is located at Syke Street in Freetown accommodates growing number of pupils between the ages of three and ten whose parents cannot afford to send them to private schools because of the exorbitant school fees.
The Infant school provides learning opportunity for children in Brookfields, Ascension Town, Kingtom and Congo Town communities among others in the Western Area.
During the visit this medium observed that the school has to do more to observe social distancing regulations. They have only two veronica buckets placed in the school compound and most of the pupils did not put on face masks because of their age. They are exempted from putting on face mask, according to the regulations.
The head teacher said that they have insufficient Veronica Bucket for hand washing, adding that the school faces constraints to ensure that the pupils wash their hands before they enter their classrooms.
“Currently we only have two veronica buckets for hand washing. The two is not enough considering the facts that the school has over 700 pupils and they are occupying 10 classrooms. We need more veronica buckets approximately one per classroom,” Amara added.
She added that the school is yet to receive subventions from government for the academic year 2020/2021. She noted that she only assumed office as Head Teacher in January after the former retired late last year, adding that there are criteria that needed to be fulfilled before they could be provided with subventions.
She explained that they have held several dialogues with old pupils of the school who promised that they would refurbish and erect a new structure in order to solve the problem of sitting accommodation.
By George M.O. Williams
9/09/2020. ISSUE NO: 7927