By Hajaratu Kalokoh
The Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education will continue to commemorate the International Day of Education today across the country.
Today, January 24th marks the actual day for the occasion but authorities at both ministries have collaborated with the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to use the whole week to celebrate education in the country.
For Sierra Leone, the celebration comes amidst government continued commitment towards its Free Quality Education initiative.
Throughout the week, officials from the two ministries have embarked on activities geared towards the promotion of education in the country, such as library tour, orientation work, radio panel discussion and symposiums.
Ministry officials and UNESCO will climax the celebrations with visits to Technical and Vocational Institutes and government assisted schools.
Secretary General, Sierra Leone National Commission for UNESCO, Dr. Mohammed Combo Kamanda, explained to Politico some of the activities they embarked on in the last four days.
“We started on Monday at the Sierra Leone Library Board where kids were exposed to the opportunities that the library has. The board offered books that pupils (primary – junior) can read, opened opportunity for registration and membership (for pupils),” he said.
He added: “We are writing a report as we go along. The Minister is aware because daily we update him. I have told him; I will update the website on recent findings. For instance, tomorrow we will be out in the schools around the country to identify what is going right and what is going wrong and that will also be included in the final report of the education week.”
Dr. David Moinina Sengeh said during a symposium on Thursday at the Miatta conference center that the world was encountering education predicament.
“We have a learning crisis in the world. We all know that education is disastrous. We can measure that perhaps with our literacy and numeracy rate. But learning is what we would need to understand. How we transform our societies, how we transform our planet, how we intervene in our communities, whether it is formal or informal. So what I want you to understand as students, as citizens and as leaders is when we go to school our priority is to focus on what we learn and how we learn,” he said.
The International Day of Education was declared by the United Nations General Assembly in celebration of the role of education for peace and development.
This year’s celebration among many other things will seek to reaffirm the role of education as a fundamental right for public good.
It will also celebrate the many ways learning can empower people, preserve the planet, build shared prosperity and foster peace.
Wuyata Koroma, a participant from St Joseph Senior Secondary School, told Politico that the symposium was an opportunity for pupils to obtain knowledge.
“As you can see it is international day of education and we are here to get education on the relevance of education. We have been asked many questions by the panelists although some of them were not answered by us (pupils). This has given us the opportunity to do research which will impact our knowledge,” she said.
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