Gelemai Junior High School Reduced to Elementary Due to Lack of Teachers

By: J. Mason Kollie |Lofa County Correspondent

Gelemai town, Lukambeh District-Sunday, October 12, 2025- The only Government School in Gelemai town has been reduced from grade 8^th to 6^th due to the lack of government employed teachers.

The principal of the school, Nelson Sando, a volunteered teacher told Rural Reporters News Network (RRNN) that they were constrained to reduce the school to elementary level due to lack of teachers, mainly government assigned teachers.

The acting Principal told RRNN that the five (5) volunteers are each paid $LD3,000 per month; adding that this amount is not even forthcoming on a regular basis.

“Imagine my brother some of us left our county Gbarpolu to do different hustle within this area , but while on our hustle and as an educated man ; high school graduate like me , I saw the school empty with no teacher. “That is the reason why I mobilized some of my friends to join me to volunteer here as teachers. But this year, the number of students is too high for us and that’s the reason we decided to cut the school down to elementary level. Perhaps, if nothing is done about the situation by government, we might further cut it down again to Grade 3,” Principal Nelson Sando lamented.

According to him, the total school enrollment is around 150 students with five (5) volunteer teachers. Parents from the nearby towns and villages often send their children to the Gelemai Public School due to its closeness to their homes as opposed to sending them to Wanhassa; which is a much longer distance.

When contacted, the Education Officer for Kolahun #2 confirmed that some schools in the district lack government assigned teachers and attributed it to long distance and remoteness of these areas.

He however promised that government is doing everything humanely possible to address the situation in Gelemai town and several other remote communities in Kolahun #2 educational district.

Gelemai is the last town between between Lofa and Gbarpolu Counties. It has about 1500 population. The town is found within Lukameh Administrative District. As a remote town, it has multiple challenges as far as development is concerned. The road is in a terrible shape; its lacks the presence of GSM networks- both Orange and Lonestar and there is no electricity.