Dear Editor – I wish to complement a news item broadcasted over SIBC on 9th May 2009 which carried a concern of a parent from Isabel with reference to Visena School.
First I would like to thank SIBC for continuous effort to broadcast the concerns of minorities which are sometimes overlooked by the main stream media.
Visena secondary is located in the Jarihana plains, bordering Gao and Maringe Districts. Its catchment area extends from Bugotu in the east to Maringe District. Since the establishment of Visena, it continues to contribute positively to the elevation of students to provincial and national secondary schools in the Solomon Islands, some of whom are already contributing to the welfare of Solomon Islands and the region one way or the other.
The concern raised above appears to be rooted on financial management of the School.
Concerns raised by the parent were shared by many more parents who choose to hold their silence for the sake of perhaps cultural reasons.
The concern raised may be just the tip of the iceberg that needed to surface.
I would like to express my appreciation for the courage taken by the concerned parent to use the media to raise his concern.
I wish to complement the call and further extend it to school authorities to investigate and act accordingly.
Time and again in the past Visena students are sent home well before the end of terms. This is uncalled for as it denies parents from the benefit of school fees for the term for their children to receive education to the end of each term.
The principal and the bursar were being implicated in the concern broadcasted by SIBC, but I think the chairman, the school board and Isabel education authority are equally important denominators in the equation.
I therefore call on the education authority of Isabel at Buala to come out of their comfort zones and inspect the management of the Visena community school and especially how the school grant has been expended over the years.
Some teachers claim that the school has no stationeries since the beginning of the year. This claim could be part of the same problem.
At some extreme financial problems in the past, the chairman of the school resort to borrowing money from Tausese Church Vestry fund.
While this mitigation can help at such times, it must not be entertained too often as profits of such borrowing may eat up value of the school grant as budgeted and allocated for.
Education authorities of community high schools must keep improving their check and balance methods in the best interest of the effectiveness of the school Board and Management.
Visena is still without stationeries since the beginning of this year 2014 despite claims that $30,000.00 has been spent on stationary in the first quarter of first half of the first semester.
It is in the best interest of all students within the Visena catchment area that both primary and secondary sector of the school develop without hindrance to afford the best possible quality of education for our children well into the future.
All the best for Visena in the years ahead.
Oliva Losi
Honiara
