By Mabinty M. Kamara
In an apparent sign of progress in the national effort to promote girls education, female candidates in this year’s National Primary School Examination in Sierra Leone have topped the scores, occupying the first three positions.
The results of the 2020 edition of the examination, which were released on Friday, September 18, was described by Minister of Education, Dr Moinina David Sengeh, as representing upward progression in the fight to attain quality education.
Some 146, 649 learners from 3, 996 schools across 262 examination centers sat to the examination on the 3rd of August this year. According to a statement from the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary School Education (MBSSE), which announced the results, this year’s examination marked the largest number to have taken the examination in the history of the country.
But for the interruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, whose effects cut across all spares of life, leading to the closure of schools for over three months in the country, the examination was normally taken in May every year to mark the end of one’s Primary School education.
Schools in Sierra Leone were declared closed from the 31st of March 2020, as a precautionary measure against the pandemic, until they were partially reopened on the 22nd of July for examination classes with barely four weeks for the NPSE towards the announced date of the examination.
However, despite these challenges, the children who sat to this year’s exam proved tough by scoring the highest individual scores recorded in the last five years in the country, according to the Education Minister.
Dr Sengeh, while announcing the results on live radio programme on Education Radio, the government run radio dedicated to education, said he was “extremely proud” with the performance of the pupils who participated in the exams.
“There was uncertainty, lost learning time, emotional challenges and this was the largest ever number of NPSE candidates in our history, yet your cohort has had the highest individual scores in the last five years. We believed in you and you have not let us down,” he said.
Another interesting revelation about this year’s exam is the fact that the results were within historic time - released exactly 43 days after the examination was taken. This is said to be the shortest ever time it has taken in history, according to people familiar with the examination.
The top candidate for the exam is an 11-year old girl named Gisele Akibo-Betts of the International School Limited in Freetown, with a score of 367. She is followed closely by 12-year old Aminata E. Collier from Providence International Elementary School in Freetown, with a score of 366, while 3rd on the list is 11-year old Zainab H. E. Conteh of the Eva-Housting Preparatory School in Eastern Freetown, with a score of 365.
Also six female candidates made it to the top ten on the list.
And by region, the female candidates also toped three regions out of the four regions considered by the ministry, save for the Southern Region, whose top candidate was a boy named Patrick Caulker and aged 11. He scored 346 from Jonathan Child Care in Bo.
Dr. Sengeh said that 761 out of 3,996 schools (19 %) had 100% pass rates. Some 300 schools had less than 10% pass rates, while 192 schools, with a total of 2, 677 candidates from every region of the country, had 0% pass rates.
“The heads of these schools, accompanied by their proprietors and the District Deputy Directors of Education, will be invited to the ministry to explain and help map out actions to improve learning and performance in the affected schools. No school should have 0% pass rates,” the Minister revealed, while thanking the heads of schools, teachers, parents and partners for their role in the achievement.
He added: “Next year, we will aspire as a ministry and as a nation to do better than we have today. This upward progression is what we mean by quality. We will not stop working until all our children have equal opportunity to access quality education and learning and achieve the vision of His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio.”
The results, according to the minister, would have reached the various schools by next week for onward access by parents and the pupils.
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