By Saio Marrah
As a way of fulfilling what he described as “solid foundation” for every nation, President Julius Maada Bio, on Friday 10th September 2021, started the commissioning of 100 Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) with other facilities worth 29 million dollars, in four districts across the country.
Funded by the European Union (EU), the project according to officials includes construction, rehabilitation and upgrading of the 100 schools. The project is to benefit an estimated 35,000 pupils including teachers and other school staff. Each of the four districts, Bo, Bombali, Kenema and Port Loko, has 25 schools. With the amalgamation of other two new districts, some schools that initially fell under Bombali and Port Loko districts are now found in the Karene district.
Speaking at the commissioning ceremony of one of the rehabilitated institutions, the National Islamic Junior Secondary School in Gerihun, Baoma Chiefdom in Bo district, President Bio said as the number of enrolments i to schools has drastically increased due to the introduction of the Free Quality Education (FQE), construction of more classrooms is one of the best things that has happened. For this, he said the government is not just providing the education but also the necessary infrastructure. The president disclosed that in the next two years, another 510 more schools will be added.
Due to his government’s progressive strides in education within the past three years, he said Sierra Leone has been registered at the Global Education Summit.
He added that Sierra Leone is also regarded as the most progressive nation that invests in human capital development, for which reason he said the country will receive between 4 to 5 hundred million dollars as a grant to continue in that direction.
According to him, the best investment of every nation is to invest in the human being and that education is the best investment for human being. He expressed his excitement about the progress of the educational sector in the country, with his government having started to provide a future for the children.
The emphasis is on education is because it does not only develop the child, but the nation as well, President Bio noted.
He expressed delight that after nearly four years he has started seeing the result of the FQE by the improved number of pass rate in public exams, by both boys and girls and with the number of pregnancies having reduced.
The Director of National Authorising Office, being the government’s implementing agency, Ambrose James said the project is as an ambitious and complex one considering the EU procedures and policies.
James explained that they started by evaluating 105 tenders submitted for the 16 lots, which he said was done with rigorous EU procedures and rules. He noted that the work was being divided into three parts; Construction that deals with the buildings added to the existing ones, Upgrading, which he said include creating space for Science and Computer laboratories, Libraries and inclusion of solar energy. The reconstruction included expanding classroom sizes, height of buildings, new roofs, ventilation arrangement and other facilities.
The work component was divided into 16 lots, with four lots in each of the targeted districts, and that all the nine contractors are locals.
The project also provided 31,588 classroom furniture sets that were distributed to 472 schools that included the targeted and non- targeted schools in the respective districts. The project also entails laboratory desks and laboratory stools. He noted that equipment will also be provided for the Science and Computer laboratories.
The EU Ambassador, Manuel Muller in his brief statement noted that one of the school pupils, he interviewed told him that she wishes to be the next president and that the subject she loves the most is mathematics. For this he said educated people shape the future of a country.
Ambassador Muller added that human development is at the core of the EU’s commitment towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. He said investing in education and skills development, in particular for children, women and youth is among the first five priorities of the new EU’s strategy with Africa.
He noted that the EU through an agreement with the government in 2016 aims to strengthen institutional and human resource capacity to deliver quality educational services.
He said the EU is targeting key institutions like the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Teaching Service Commission and the District Education Offices to improve equitable access to primary and secondary education.
“You will agree with me that delivering quality education for Sierra Leoneans is not without challenges but with the efforts and commitment of your government, support by the EU, these challenges can be addressed and progress can be made”, he said.
He assured the government of the continued support from the EU and its member states in efforts to strengthen national education systems and the quality of learning, as well as development programmes.
The Minister of MBSSE, Dr. David Moinia Sengeh noted that the president, after appointing him as the minister, admonished him to focus on the quality aspect as the free aspect had already been achieved. To him, the quality aspect has already started manifesting itself. He cited National Islamic School in Gerihun, Baoma Chifdom, where out of 104 candidates, 103 passed the Basic Education Certificate Education (BECE) this year and that a female candidate got the best result there with aggregate 12. He said that school only started taking the BECE in the past three years, with the best grade for the first year an aggregate 17.
Dr. Sengeh said his ministry has been training the School Management Committees (SMC) wherein they will put 20 million dollars into five thousand schools so that they can be resourced to improve their schools. He also noted that they have provided motor bikes and tablets to all the school inspectors for monitoring. Also, every principal at both JSS and SSS have been given a tablet each so they can monitor the attendance of their teachers, he disclosed.
The Minister also noted that they have hired another 1000 teachers to the existing ones.
He also stated that cabinet has allowed them to change the Education Act of 2004 and the TSC Act. His ministry has also launched the early childhood development policy and expanded the school feeding policy, he went on.
The Paramount Chief of Baoma Chiefdom, Alfred Demby in his reaction stated that the pass rate in BECE shows that the country has started to regain its past glory as the Athens of West Africa.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (13/09/21)
