This is the leading cause of dropouts in the chiefdom, especially for the girl child. Most parents do not have the money to send their children far away to attend school, leading to a number of children dropping out of school. 

Children who sat to the National Primary school Examination and pass for secondary school will have to go to Segbwema for secondary school education or in Jaluahun, two mile away from Bandajuma.  Both the Bandajuma Methodists and Provincial Islamic primary schools in the chiefdom comprises only three classrooms each and they both provide primary school education up to class six.

Explaining to AYV Newspaper, the Head Teacher of the Provincial Primary school, Mr. Ansumana Max Brima said the school was established in 1985 but was destroyed during the war. It was rebuilt under the Sababu Education Project after the war and assisted by government. This chiefdom has no secondary school and this is creating some serious problems for parents. Though two miles from this chiefdom there is a secondary school in Jaluahun, but it is only a junior secondary school and as such, pupils who sat to the BECCE examination and pass will have to go to Segbwema to access senior secondary school education.

He said the chiefdom including the school continue to face series of challenges as supplies to the school is just not forthcoming. Teaching and learning materials are challenges that seem insurmountable. He said that the school has only two trained and qualified teachers.

“We have nine teachers in the school who are helping to teach and care for the pupils but this is also a challenge as not all of them are trained and qualified.  They are also not on the government pay roll and as such we have to use part of the school fees subsidies to retain them”

Mr. Brima said that not many parents are able to care for their children’s education as most of these parents are poor. “These are the problems we are grappling with as a school and the reason we continue to call on the government and other humanitarian organizations to come to our aid”

He said education is the only thing that will move people away from poverty and if “we are unable to educate the nation it will be difficult to defeat poverty. We need a secondary school in this chiefdom as the population continues to grow and the demand to access primary school education is also growing”