Sarteneja’s Only High School Still Homeless After Four Years

Still in Sarteneja Village, there’s growing frustration tonight where a rural high school is still without a permanent home. Parents and students say that after more than four years of makeshift learning, the quality of education is slipping, and resources are being stretched to the limit. News Five’s Shane Williams traveled to Sarteneja today to see firsthand how the community is coping.

 

Shane Williams, Reporting

Tonight, in Sarteneja Village, eighty‑four high schoolers are still learning without a real campus. Sarteneja Baptist High School, the community’s only secondary institution, has spent more than four years operating out of a community center and borrowed rooms. Administrators say they’re doing everything they can, but the lack of a permanent home is putting real pressure on teachers, students, and the quality of education they can provide. Sarteneja Baptist High is running on grit and goodwill. With only four teachers and a principal who doubles as a full‑time instructor, the staff is stretched thin just trying to keep classes going. The school has no science lab, no computer lab, nothing that most high schools consider basic. Instead, students gather for lessons and assemblies in outdoor sheds pieced together from donated lumber and zinc, a reminder of how far the community is improvising to make education happen.

 

Darnel Cruz, Secretary, Sarteneja Village Council

“ The last thing that I got to know was that these guys had a parcel close to the airstrip and they were looking for funding to have that building erected? If you might have noticed they’re currently using the community center, what used to be the community center, but we as the Village Council decided that we need to work along with education also. So we have given them the building for them to have their classes there. And I heard that there was plans on, on starting their, their development but there is a problem with funding in that aspect.”

 

Sarteneja is bracing for a graduating class that its only high school simply can’t absorb. Village Council Secretary Darnel Cruz, who also teaches at the local Catholic primary school, says far more students are finishing Standard Six this June than there are seats available at the already‑overloaded Sarteneja Baptist High. And with the nearest alternative school miles away, this tiny institution is not only important, it’s a realistic option for most families.

 

Shane Williams

“That’s the only high school in the village?

 

Darnel Cruz

“Yes, currently, yes. We have that high school, St. Viters one, which is some miles from here going towards the Chunox Village. But it is good to have a high school in our own community, less expensive for certain people. Yeah.”

 

Shane Williams

“So what’s, what’s the hope in terms of, for the students here?”

 

Darnel Cruz

“Well, we hope the best there are certain things that are lacking at the high school, for instance, because of space, they need a lab, chemistry lab and other things. It has to grow. But for now it’s the only thing we can do is assist with that building.  hopefully in the future, well, they will have their, their goal achieved, which is the construction of their own facilities.”

 

Parents told News Five they’re worried about the poor infrastructure and lack of resources at the high school. Management wouldn’t speak on camera. Meanwhile, students are still trying to learn without basic services or enough classroom space. Families in Sarteneja say they need officials to step in now with a real, long‑term fix. Shane Williams for News Five.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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