By: News Desk
Honorable Claudiana Cole, Minister of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) has been accused on issues concerning the management and subsequent administration of Model Senior Secondary School located at Busumbala, Kombo North District by the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education.
The controversial school has been embroiled in ownership saga since 2009 and its principal, Isaac Ague has been sent home by Regional Education authority in Brikama without salaries, dismissal or termination letter.
Sources closed to this medium at the Regional Education office in Brikama has hinted that the Basic and Secondary Education Minister has been at the helm of issues leading to the forceful sending home of Isaac Ague the principal of the school.
“It’s unfortunate that Isaac Ague is going through a lot of pains because of some corrupt officials at both the Ministry and at the regional education office. They all know the truth but because of the influence of the Minister through the support of regional education staff Isaac is going through this pain,” the source said.
According to the source, since Model was seized from Isaac Ague, Minister Cole through Regional Education Authorities in Brikama has appointed another principal who has surpassed his retirement age but still serving at the school. Source revealed that more than 75% of the teachers currently working at the school are all under government payroll though the school is a registered private school.
“I can confirm that 75% of teachers currently working at Model are all paid by government and it is also a fully aided and subvention school. This has been made possible through the Minister who has taken more than D1.5million PEGEP money without any action taken by the Ministry of Education,” source revealed.
“I have been seating at home for seven years now without receiving any salaries from Model Senior Secondary School where I was serving as the Principal. My leaving the school was forceful and orchestrated by the Minister of Education Honorable Claudiana Cole, whom I have been battling with over the ownership of Model Senior Secondary School,” a frustrated Nigerian national explained his ordeals.
According to him, since 2014, he was asked by then Director of Education for Region 2, Amadou Suwareh to go and sit at home until when Ministry of Education established the ownership of Model Senior Secondary School. And Suwareh assured him that during this period his salaries will be paid but to date no penny is paid to him.
Delving into the issue of the ownership of Model Senior Secondary School, Isaac Ague informed this medium that late William Cole established Model Senior Secondary School and housed it at Mahad Arabic School in Brikama, where the school ran into difficulties to sustain teachers’ salaries and rental charges from owners of Mahad Arabic School.
Isaac Ague disclosed that the situation frustrated late William Cole, husband to Education Minister to authorised him to shutdown the school, while he told him that shutting down the school was not an option to him as the Principal and he (Isaac Ague) decided to forge ahead to look for funds and keep the school moving.
“Since Mr. William Cole asked me to close the school in 2004, he never came to the school and never asked me anything about the school. I was doing everything on my own and invested over D600, 000 to secure land and construct classroom blocks at Busumbala,” he revealed.
According to him, Minister Cole only came onboard in 2009 after the school registered progress and made claim of the school without her husband’s consent or approval and that it was through rigorous pressures and threats including clandestine court arrangements that resulted to his been elbowed out from the school.
He went on explaining that “to claim ownership of Model School Senior Secondary School from me, Honorable Claudiana Cole forged her husband’s signature thus influencing regional education authorities to seized my School, send me home without salaries or any benefit from my own work for the past seven years.”
He accused the Honorable Minister of Education for using her powers and influences to knock him out from the running and management of the school, while he said he wrote series of letters to both the Ministry of Education and Regional Education office without any replies to his letters.
“I want to appeal to President Adama Barrow and his cabinet to act on this matter because I went everywhere including Ombudsman Office without any redress. I feel that I have been cheated and forced out of my own school and it will be unjust on my path if this matter is left unaddressed by the President and his cabinet,” Isaac told this medium in tears.
Isaac Ague has been residing in The Gambia for the past 29 years, married to a Gambian woman and blessed with four (4) kids who are all attending schools. He told this medium that he is currently without job or anything to lean on to take care of his family and 80 years old mother in Nigeria.
Lamin Fatajo, Region 2 Education Director, responded that Model Senior Secondary School has been taken over and now under receivership of Ministry of Education, adding that this is why Ministry is paying the salaries of all the teachers posted at the school.
Fatajo said he is not in position to speak on the ownership of the school as well as the refusal of the Ministry of Education to pay former principal Isaac Ague his seven years salaries.
When asked to shed light on the alleged financial misappropriation of D1.5million purportedly embezzled by the Minister of Education, the Region 2 Education Director declined to speak on the issue, stating that the matter is something that has been there for more than four years and he just took over less than two years.
This reporter spoke with both the Minister of Basic and Secondary Education, Claudiana Cole and Momodou Lamin Jaiteh, Principal Model Senior Secondary School to shed light on the allegations, however, both said they were attending funerals and are not in any position to speak on the matter.
