Teachers across the country have registered their dissatisfaction on the recent statements by the Anti- Corruption Commission on the deadline for the declaration of Assets to the commission.
“You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that even if the senior most teachers in Sierra Leone were to starve and save twenty years of their salary, they would still not have an ‘asset’ to declare! Take note of the word asset above; I don’t mean a plasma TV that even a maggi seller can afford,” Patrick Sillah with 18 years of teaching experience in the classroom.
“Of course, you all know what I’m talking about; we’re talking about valuable assets here, and most importantly, the accumulation of a teacher’s asset within a projected period.” Alimamy Sesay a teachers with 15 years in the classroom explains.
“I have to say it outright that the inclusion of teachers (if the information is true) in the declaration of assets to the ACC has completely defeated the purpose of the entire initiative. The ACC should in their wisdom conjure up respectable ways of combating corruption in the teaching sphere.
According to the aggrieved teachers, their situation is nothing to write home about as teachers salary cannot commensurate with other sectors of government or MDAs.
“Go to the banks at the end of a month and see how our colleagues desperately flood these places for their pittances.” He noted.
“A teacher cannot launch a three-story building project with that; he’ll starve to death, except if he has a strong and supportive overseas connection. At times the few who take up the risk would spend the rest of their lives building that house; some would even die in the process and if you see a teacher in an expensive car, ten chances to one, na lift den gi am o!
Sometimes teachers are forced to bow our heads down in shame when we see classmates that struggled in the university but now find themselves in other fertile sectors cruising jeeps, undertaking building projects, going places and growing from strength to strength, while we are just stuck here settling for garri plasas money.
Joseph Kamara a retired teacher also expressed his opinion by saying that they quite often think some of them made a mistake becoming a teacher; we just seem odd among the lot.
“And the situation is further worsened by our parasitic union who will just cut and cut without impacting anything on our conditions of service. No wonder they are all so subservient to the government of the day.
“Leave the teachers ACC! If you want teachers to declare their assets, improve their conditions of service in such a way that they’ll be able to save and own assets to be declared.