By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) and the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) have praised Heal Sierra Leone (HSL) for its new e-learning platform initiative.
Officials from both institutions were part of the official launch of the platform on Wednesday, at Heal Sierra Leone’s Head Office in Freetown. The launching comes after months of work behind the scenes to build the system and the studio.
Brima Michael Turay, who is the Head of the Radio Teaching Program at the Education Ministry, said the initiative is the right way to go for the future of education in the country.
“E-learning can enhance your writing skills because 95% of your communication is through writing. As a ministry, we are encouraged by this. This is the right way to go,” Turay said.
The TSC, in partnership with the government, is currently implementing the radio teaching program. Chair of the TSC, Dr Staneala Beckley, praised Sannoh’s initiative. She encouraged investment into homegrown solutions to strengthening education.
“I personally feel we should strengthen our local capacity; that is why I want to give a lot of commendation to Mr Sannoh and his team. We are open to supporting you,” she said.
HSL has built a state of the art studio with modern software and broadcasting equipment to do live teaching session.
The platform is integrated with social media sites Facebook and Youtube, through which teaching sessions will be broadcasted live.
Executive Director, Joseph Sannoh, said: “What we have brought is a solution to change the entire dynamics of education in Sierra Leone. We want to make sure COVID-19 doesn’t stop education in Sierra Leone.”
Sannoh said despite this being a private venture, he was open to working with the government and even private institutions to transmit their expertise.
“It is our hope that if the ministry let us, we will have one of those studios in every university across the country,” he said.
Sannoh told Politico that there he had already started talks with the ministry and tertiary institutions on the possibility of using their expertise.
HSL is a campaign group that works around education. In 2014 they introduced the radio teaching program when schools were shut down as a result of the Ebola outbreak.
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