By Prince J Musa in Kenema
The Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education has on the 2nd June 2021 concluded two days of training for inspectors of schools in the eastern region to rollout the new education curriculum framework.
In his statement, the Director of Research and Curriculum Development in the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Osman Kamara said the training of inspectors of schools is to rollout the new national curriculum framework and syllabus which have been developed by the Ministry in promoting and improving the standards of education in the country .
“Educational curriculum has collapsed over the last 13 years in this country,’’ he said.
The training captured the new inspectors of schools, supervisors, heads of schools and education chairpersons in the local councils in the eastern region.
Kamara said they decided to blend the various stakeholders because the development of education in Sierra Leone needs collective efforts in ensuring that the quality of education is attained by the children, adding that the bedrock for the development of this nation will be determined by the quality and standards of education being provided for the children.
He added that the curriculum training will serve as capacity building of the new school inspectors in ensuring that the government’s free quality education programme succeeds in transforming Sierra Leone and was therefore incumbent on all inspectors of schools to cascade the new curriculum framework to the teachers in the classrooms as the curriculum is part of transforming the education system of the country.
Kamara said that civic mindedness is important as it helps to check on the behaviors of school going pupils of which government has thought it necessary to bring back civic education into the educational system in the classroom because lack of it has had adverse effects on the children who engage in violence in schools with many ignorant of their basic responsibilities as children.
Kamara further stated that the curriculum will help teachers in teaching pupils with syllabuses in line with WASSCE because the ministry has found out that over the last thirteen years candidates in the exams fail because some of the public exams questions require critical analysis and creative thinking in answering them.
He added that the syllabuses comprise both the national exams and WASSCE all in one document which is now available on the Ministry’s website.
He said the Ministry is expecting all inspectors of schools to go back and teach the teachers the new curriculum and syllabuses in their schools.
The Chief Facilitator of the training Professor Joe AD Allie told the trainees that the exercise will enable them to understand the new changes taking place in the education sector .
Professor Joe AD Allie maintained that the Ministry considers the new inspectors of schools as agents of change in rolling out the curriculum framework through ethitical, moral and modern educational system and that the training will equip them with skills and be well knowledgeable in transferring the ideas to the teachers.
He added that with the experiences of the school inspectors in the teaching field, he believed they will judiciously utilize the knowledge and skills impacted on them to help promote education in the country. He said the new educational curriculum framework will target from Pre-Primary to JSS III while the curriculum for senior school is at its development stage.
Lucy Agness Gbonda, one of the inspector of schools Kenema, commended the Ministry for being proactive in helping them do their work in schools and assured the Ministry that they will do all they could to ensure that the knowledge impacted in them is cascaded to the teachers in the various schools.
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