Nigerian couple in trouble over school

QACHA’S NEK – A Nigerian couple appeared in the Qacha’s Nek Magistrates’ Court this week for running an unregistered school.

Raymond and Nora Onouha are accused of continuing to operate their school despite that the government had shut it down in April this year. The court heard that the couple kept operating the school until September when it was forced to close again.

The wife, Nora, was the one working at the school while the husband, Raymond, was allegedly managing it from Nigeria. However, Raymond was present in court to answer the charges.

The court heard that the couple opened a pre-school in 2012 which they registered but when the students graduated to the primary level, they enrolled them in their new primary school.

The prosecution says the couple knew that it was not supposed to enroll children in an unregistered school in January this year but continued to do so despite that they were stopped.

Parents whose children enrolled at the school, named Precious Primary School, testified that the school had enrolled students for grades one up to three.

’Matšepo Mokoma, a parent, said her eight-year-old son is in Grade Three at Precious Primary School, confirming that the Onouhas were actually running the school.

Mokoma said her son stopped going to school at the end of September when the government forced the school to close.

Mokoma said her son had been attending the Onouhas’ school for the past seven years, starting from pre-school when he was just two-years-old.

She also told the court as part of the evidence that parents would sometimes be invited to meetings which were chaired by the Onouhas.

“My child has been at Precious school since he was only two and he is now eight years old,” Mokoma said.

She however said she was happy with the quality of education her son got there and she wrote a letter to the owner to enroll him in the primary school when he graduated from the pre-school. Mokoma told the court that she was not aware that the school was not yet registered.

“I only noticed when my child had to stop going to school after it was shut down,” she said.

The Education CEO in Qacha’s Nek district, Lebenya Mothibeli, said Precious Primary was not registered as a primary school but as a pre-school. Mothibeli said his office is not aware whether the school has met the requirements for being a primary school, such as whether the school buildings are safe enough for the children.

“The office is also not even aware whether the school has water in the yard and toilets that are in a good condition for the children,” Mothibeli said.

Raymond said he did not have any primary school students at his school.

“I only have students whose parents wrote letters asking me to keep their children because they are happy with the quality of education they got,” he said.

“Those are the only kids I kept,” he said.

Raymond told the court that the education the children got was suitable for their age but did not mention if it was for primary or pre-school students.

He said he applied for a certificate to operate legally but he waited for a long time for the certificate to be issued, so long that he even went to Maseru himself to see if his application was already at the headquarters.

He said he discovered that his application was still in Qacha’s Nek.

“I understand that Mothibeli did not send my application to Maseru,” he said.

He said Mothibeli never liked it when they registered for a primary school. He accused Mothibeli of deliberately stalling the application. Thato Masoabi, a former teacher at the school, said back in 2020 Precious only had pre school students.

But this year she was teaching Grade One students who were taught primary school subjects. Masoabi said she was instructed by the owner of the school, Nora Onouha, to teach the children the primary school syllabus.

She said Nora once told her that the school is in the process of registering with the Ministry of Education. The Education Act of 2010 requires a mandatory certificate of registration for all schools.

The law forced all unregistered schools to register with the Ministry of Education or they would be closed. It is an offence punishable by a jail sentence to operate an illegal school in Lesotho. The case continues.

Those Ramolibeli