Please don’t close Aligegeo!
Parents of Aligegeo Provincial Secondary School in Malaita have united to urge the national and provincial governments to see to the severe water problem at the school.
The school’s water situation has reached critical level, with warning by the school principal that he will close down the school in two weeks’ time.
The situation came after the source supplying water to the school was diverted by natural causes, leaving nothing to pump into the water supply system.
Aligegeo is home to 550 students.
A spokesman for the parents, who asked not to be named, said the school’s water situation can only be addressed with the intervention of the national and provincial governments.
“As parents, the last thing we want is for the school to close down,” the parent said.
“We paid fees to send our children there and we expect them to remain at school until the end of the year,” he added.
“To close the school and send our children home will not only affect our children’s education and future, but will also cost as extra.
“We are therefore calling on the national and provincial education authorities to seriously look at addressing the water situation.”
Education authorities are not available yesterday to talk about the school’s water situation.
Comments are being sought from them.
The school’s principal, Javin Rukia earlier said his administration has been putting every effort to address the situation but they could not fix it because it needs a much larger intervention from responsible authorities such as the provincial and national governments or even donor partners.
“This is a very sad and critical situation for one of our premier secondary schools and I would like to make this public call to our responsible authorities to quickly intervene,” he said.
Rukia said his administration is running out of options and the only one that is left is to close the school up to a time the problem is resolved.
“We are looking at sending our students home in the next two weeks,” Rukia warned.
By STEPHEN DIISANGO
