Few days to school resumption, PHS BESONGABANG,a top notch institution that has trained several individuals , located in the South West Region still lies abandoned, with overgrown grass around the campus. Some years back, a heavy military presence led to teachers and students fleeing the school.
Barely a week to school resumption, one will have expected the institution to get set to receive students ‘but this is not the case. Classrooms are all empty, the blackboard still with last lessons on board, school benches with classroom floor littered with dead leaves.
To Mr. Nde Harry elite of the locality, continued rumblings of conflict in the locality, have led to rampant military activity in the areas, leaving students unable to go to school.
“The school has got no item, everyone left. It was once a vibrant institution, but constant threats from separatist fighters and rape caused many to flee. My kids were all in this institution but I removed them because one of my kids were raped. Their campus has been transferred elsewhere”
“This used to be a great school, it has dormitories, refectories, spacious classrooms, but the school has been abandoned. As I said myself, I studied here, constant operations from separatists’ fighters have seen control of the area change hands, says another elite Mr. Besong Egbe.
To Mrs. Cecile, peace is the way forward.
“since the school was shut down, my kids have been home. I don’t even know if I will be able to send these children to school this year because nothing is going on here.” Let us give peace a chance she added, we need peace and it should be durable one not just today and tomorrow, another war-no- we don’t want to break. We want sustainable peace.”
In the past years, the conflict in the Anglophone Regions have torn many apart, leaving their infrastructure dilapidated, PHS Besongabang is just one of these institutions.
PHS Besongabang .Image Nina sky cakes.
Education Under Attack in Conflict Zones.
Violence in and through schools,has impacted several students in the North West and South West Region, and the children are at extreme risk of trauma, abduction and psychological violence.
Separatist fighters have killed, kidnapped, assaulted, threatened students and teachers while at school, or on the way to or from school. At least 70 schools have been attacked in the Anglophone Regions since 2017, according to reports from the United Nations Agencies, World Bank, international civil society organizations, media outlet. Human Rights Watch documented in details 15 attacks on schools by separatists’ fighters between January 2017.
As schools prepare to resume, parents are hoping that the conflict comes to an end so their kids go to school.