LAND DISPUTE IN PILENI DENIED CHILDREN RIGHT TO EDUCATION
Right to Education logo. Photo credit: limyinsze.blogspot.com
Over 60 children in Pileni, Reef islands, have been denied their right to education as a result of a land dispute which saw their school building dismantled.
The dispute resulted from an unpaid lease agreement over the piece of land on which the school building was erected.
Chair of the school board, John Laulae told SIBC News in an interview, the landowner has insisted that the building be pulled down as the school failed to honour the lease agreement for almost 15 years.
“We haven’t paid the lease for almost 15 years now and it’s the second time they’ve demanded us to take down the school building, so we started taking it down yesterday and now we are taking off the roofing iron as we speak.”
Meanwhile, the School Chairman said they are using an Early Childhood Education classroom as a temporary classroom as work on identifying a new site starts.
“So we have managed to accommodate the children in the ECE building for today’s classes until we have identified a piece of land. This building was funded by World Vision.”
SIBC News understands, the classroom building being pulled down was funded by the Australian Aid Programme.