By Alpha Daramy Sesay
Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, Mohamed Kamara says the long awaited results of the school-leaving WASSCE exams will be out tomorrow, Friday 21 September. He said government had already paid the Le 2 billion it owed the West Africa Examinations Council.
He was responding to a statement by the Acting Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Teachers' Union, Morris Conteh who said that the country's educational system was facing a lot of challenges that hinder the SLTU in its stride to improve the condition of its members. He said the government still owed teachers which he said had caused the delay in publishing the WASSCE results, adding that a good number of them who are examiners were currently registering voters rather than marking the exams papers.
Addressing journalists at the opening of the National Education Stakeholders' Conference in Freetown on Tuesday, Conteh said the new 6-3-4-4 system was based on the recommendations of the Proffessor Gbamanja Commission of enquiry instituted following severely poor performances of students in public exams. He said students had little time for their studies and teachers did not have the time to complete their syllabuses.
The schools, he said, were engaging in many extracurricular activities which impacted adversely on academic work. He expressed confidence that the additional year in senior secondary school would better prepare the the students to face the WASSCE exams and come out with good grades.
“This academic year we are experimenting. So student that are currently in SSS 3 will not take the WASSCE but have to be promoted to SSS 4 before they take the exams by way of implementing the policy that has been introduced.”
“The agenda for change and prosperity will never succeed if the educational sector is not prioritised,” he concluded.
In his keynote address, Deputy Minister of Education, Lansana Nyalley said his ministry had taken moves to improve the education sector. He said relationship between his ministry and the teachers' union had improved, as well as infrastructure, the teaching and learning environment. Nyallay said government grant-in-aid to students had increased, and payment for public exams sustained. He said free primary education, fees subsidy, assistance for the girl child and teaching and learning materials had been provided.
He however acknowledges the challenges that continue to beset the education sector. Among them he said were the illegal school charges by some teachers, girls getting pregnant and dropping out of school.
