OWENGROVE, Grand Bassa County – Children living on the banks of the Farmington River in Zangar Town Community in Grand Bassa County have tough time reaching school.
Every morning, some 60 schoolchildren board a makeshift canoe made of tree trunks in a bid to get across the Farmington River to their Roberts International Airport (RIA) Public School in Margibi County.
It often means they are late and when the weather is rough, especially when the river overflows its banks, it can be dangerous for them to navigate.
As dawn breaks, the children–dressed in white, navy blue, and green–board the only fragile-looking wooden canoe parked on the river banks.
The children between the ages of 3 to15 years old in a FrontPage Africa interview lamented that they often mess up their uniforms due to tussle with local market women who join the early morning rush to board the only canoe.
“I get up early around 6 am every day–to get to the river because of the rush from my friends and market women,” says 12-yr-old Mongarjay, brimming with energy.
Mongarjay said crossing the Farmington River in the morning hours to school is the only alternative for her and her colleagues to access school owning to the lack of school in their community, noting “Since the establishment of our town, it had not experienced school”.
Parents whose children travel via canoe on the river to seek education intimated that they are aware of the danger, but have no options.
The kids’ parents claim that the government through the Grand Bassa local authority has turned a blind eye to their misery as the promise of a school in the vicinity remains unfulfilled. “The government has made all kinds of promises of providing a good education for our kids, but it has failed to deliver”, says a parent.
“It is very risky traveling to school by canoe. But what choice do they have? These children are facing challenges every day to achieve their dream”, says a teacher at the RIA Public School who spoke to FrontPage Africa on condition of anonymity.
He maintained that the daily risk these children face in getting to school demonstrates the power of education and the need for government to urgently address the issue of school construction in their community.
His words: “This situation is a looming tragedy which must be avoided now by constructing a school in the vicinity of Zangar Town; We don’t want to wake up one morning to hear any sad news about these kids.”
The risk situation with schoolchildren of Zangar Town Community comes when UNESCO and other international child protection organizations are campaigning to curtail unsafe learning environments for kids worldwide.
They believed that unsafe learning environments reduce the quality of education for all learners and are at increased risk of anxiety, psychological stress, and depression.