By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
The Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE), Dr. David Moinina Sengeh is set to include three students (all of them girls), as part of his delegation to the United Nations (UN) Transforming Education Summit Advisory Group to be held in New York.
One of the students came from the Ministry’s Youth Advisory Group and the other two were the top two female candidates in last year's Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for promotion to Senior Secondary Schools.
The student from the ministry’s youth advisory group according to a social media post by the minister participated remotely in the last Paris Pre-Summit.
The other two students have never visited Sierra Leone’s Capital, Freetown, and are from remote districts of Falaba and Pujehun where motorbikes remain the best means of transportation if one is to access the districts. Campaigners and the government continue the struggle on the female transition from the backseat in those districts, a transition the Minister described as an inspirational revolution in rural communities.
According to the Minister, he has taken young Africans from very rural or economically challenging backgrounds to places beyond their wildest dreams, and that he had hosted Sierra Leonean youth at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and helped Kenyans get into Harvard and beyond which he said is all through their own diligence and hard work.
However, he described his latest move of exposing those girls to be his favourite saying that those students predominantly live in mud houses, and cannot even access national passports, nor have they ever been to the city.
“But we will take them to New York City where they'll meet world leaders. Why? Because of education,’’ he said.
Minister Sengeh noted that the lives of the students and those of their parents and relatives will never be the same again. He hoped that the experience will open more windows of opportunity to transform not just their own lives but those of other children to inspire them that no matter who they are or where they live or which farm they work on, with quality education, they could just change their lives and their country.
He also noted the support of community members in ensuring that those girls become better in their society.
The Minister said in the past, such opportunities were given to children of ‘corrupt politicians and that there was also a time when only those in Freetown knew about these opportunities.
He went on to note that there also used to be a time when data wasn't the source for those opportunities which he said that time was then and not now.
The Communications Officer at MBSSE, Augustine Sankoh told Politico that as Sierra Leone is Co-Chair of the summit, it is incumbent on the minister to showcase those students who have performed extremely well in the past BECE.
He said the summit will have different sessions during which the children will also be introduced to key participants.
He said taking them to New York will serve as a way of promoting people in the educational sector in the country.
