By Samuel Flomo, Jr
In Guo Town, Sanoyea District, Bong County the government school there is reportedly under fire.
The situation came against the background after residents accused authorities of abandoning their constitutional duty, leaving the community’s only public school in decay.
With that, hundreds of the school-going children are left without meaningful access to education.
At the center of the crisis is Vessellee Felemeh Public School, the sole government-recognized school in Guo, now operating without a single government-paid teacher; a situation, residents said, exposes the hollow nature of official promises on education.
Guo Town Chief Albert Cooper, told reporters that although the school was constructed by a patriotic citizen of the district, and officially absorbed under government supervision in 2022, the Ministry of Education (MoE) then assigned only one teacher to the institution.
That teacher, Cooper said, was later pensioned and never replaced, a decision that effectively shut the government out of the school, and transferred the burden of education onto an already impoverished community.
“The government walked away,” Cooper said bluntly.
With no state support, the school now relies entirely on volunteer teachers funded through irregular community contributions. But according to Cooper, most parents are subsistence farmers, who struggle daily to feed their families, let alone maintain teachers’ salaries.
As a result, volunteer teachers frequently abandon classrooms for weeks to find other means of survival, plunging the school into repeated shutdowns.
“Learning here is unpredictable. One day, there is school, the next day, there is nothing,” Cooper told reporters.
A visit to the school by this reporter painted a grim picture of neglect. Several classrooms were found without doors, allowing cattle to freely enter.
Cattle dung littered classroom floors, turning learning spaces into symbols of official disregard.
Residents say the physical decay of the school mirrors government’s indifference to rural children.
Chief Cooper warned that about 500 school-aged children in Guo Community now face the real possibility of growing up without education; a failure he said, would have lasting consequences for both the community and the nation.
“Children go to school ready to learn, but they meet empty rooms. Parents are left with no choice but to take them to the farms.”
He argued that the situation contradicts national education policy, which guarantees equal access to quality education regardless of location or social status.
“In practice, that promise ends outside the cities as rural children are clearly not a priority.”
The town chief questioned how a government that speaks loudly about development can allow its youngest citizens to be abandoned so openly.
He has called on the MoE to immediately intervene by assigning qualified teachers, rehabilitate the school, and restore state responsibility.