Monrovia – Students of the J.W. Pearson Elementary School Monday stormed the streets in protest calling on government attention to intervene in the crises of rent.
The school is being run by the Monrovia Consolidated School System (MCSS) under the supervision of the Ministry of Education. Students of the J W Pearson were prevented from entering their campus because the owner of the property housing the school.
It was reported that government owe the owner of the property for ten years in rent, something that reportedly prompted the landlord locking his property.
the students blocked the intersections of Carey and Johnson streets yesterday morning demanding their rights to education the owner of the building locked the gates.
Parents Teacher Association Chairman of the J W Pearson during the students demo expressed disappointment in the poor handling of education by government.
Mr. Bowan Doe explained that students have been out of school for the past three weeks due to what he called government inability to pay the owner of the building.
He disclosed that the school has been occupying the building for the past ten years.
Mr. Doe said all efforts to engage the education ministry has not materialized, saying he has resulted to have the students block the streets to claim government attention.
“we have tried our best in engaging the government through the Ministry of Education telling them about tension from the owner of the property we are using, the lady who owns this property came here some few weeks ago and locked the gate, we inform our MOE authority about the issue but we didn’t get any result,” he said.
Mr. Doe noted that for the past two weeks the students have been out of school and the Ministry of education is in the know but refused to address the situation.
“We came on the campus of the school one morning and saw the lock on the gate of the school, when we asked, the school administration told us that the owner of the building locked her building because the government has refused to paid pay the rent,” he explained.
This paper has not independently verified the amount being requested by the property owner, but it is reported that government is indebted to the landlord undisclosed amount for ten years.
He said it was saddened to see a government run institution like the J W Pearson to thrown out by private citizen for government failure to pay rent.
According to him it is unpleasing to see young kids who are students of a government school being put out of school because government has refused to pay it rent that they have been using for the past ten years.
Mr. Doe noted that all effort have been made to engage the education Ministry but has not materialized so they have no option but to put the students blocked the streets to call the attention of the Government of Liberia.
The Ministry of Education has meanwhile refused to comment on the issue as the communication director at the Ministry of education Martin Bleaten refused to answer his calls up to press time.
Edwin G. Genoway, Jr (231886458910)[email protected]