Jonglei state gov’t forced Bor Secondary School to vacate the premises it leased in 2016.

Bor College High, a private secondary school in Bor town, Jonglei State, has been temporarily closed after the state government forced the school to evacuate the buildings it rented in 2016.

The evacuation order was issued on Friday.

The acting governor, Tuong Majok Deng, explained in the morning that he ordered the evacuation because the state administration was ready to utilize the facility.

“In 2016, the government reached a deal with Bor College’s administration to allow them to utilize the facility since we were not ready to use it,” he said. “However, the government now wants its facilities back.”

Majok said that the evacuation order should not be taken seriously since the school administration was alerted months ago.

“As a government, we had a space constraint in order to accommodate Malek Secondary School and the partners’ training of our teachers.” That is why we gave them notice to quit the premises some months ago, but they have not done so. “So we sealed the facilities to them on Friday,” he said.

Bor College High is a private secondary school in Bor that was founded in 2012. A long ownership dispute among the founders was put to rest a month ago when the High Court determined that the institution be jointly owned by all partners.

Atem Mabior Mabior, one of the founders, said that they have been alerted of the evacuation and will move as soon as possible.

“It is not the school that has been closed. The government is reclaiming its facilities. We were alerted around two months ago. “With the exception of a partner who is in Juba, we, the three partners who were granted joint ownership rights by the court, decided to migrate,” he stated. “My request is that the students allow us just three days to sit as partners.”

Panther Alier, another founding member, said, “I was made aware of the authorities closing down the school yesterday evening.” As school proprietors, we believe that children should not be harmed. As founding members, we had some challenges before the court. “Because we were unable to build our own facilities, we have been renting from the government.”

Panther acknowledged that the closure is sad since it disrupts learning in the midst of the academic year, but reassured pupils that a solution is being sought.