Monrovia, Liberia
January 7, 2015

“Ebola is still in the country, and in case of an outbreak at any of the school campuses, all the parents and their children in that particular school will be quarantined, because no one will be sure of the health status of those students,” warned Horatio Weedor, Head of Super Micro Lending at Access Bank-Liberia.

For her part, the president of the Catholic-run Stella Maris Polytechnic, Sister Mary Laurene Browne, says it is a difficult time but that all Liberians and their partners must make the sacrifice and act accordingly by keeping strictly to the Ebola preventive measures whenever schools are reopened.

She believes that waiting any longer than the date set by authorities of the Ministry of Education (MOE) for the resumption of academic activities will result in “the country’s education sector going from bad to worse,” adding that to be declared an Ebola free country will take a long time and our school-going children will become over age for their current classes.

According to the renowned educator, government does not have to satisfy everybody at the same time, but must ensure that there is strict observance of the preventive measures even though those rules may curtail some of the students’ freedom.

Says Sister Laurene, “This is a difficult time, but we all have to make the sacrifice because it cannot be business as usual.” As such, the Spiritan Academy, which she runs has embarked on procedures leading to the re-arrangement of seating capacity of students to at least 25 to 30 students per class.”