Educate & Empower Children in Rural Sierra Leone

It was a great joy on October 5th for EduNations to report all schools open and back to in-classroom instruction.  Although it seems like much longer than six months ago, the government of Sierra Leone closed down all schools in the country on March 31st due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This closure ushered EduNations into a season of extraordinary flexibility in order to continue to serve its students, their families, and their communities.

When schools were shut down, EduNations’ schools were mid school year with a special focus on preparing students for the end-of-year exams, which are so important for their educational success in Sierra Leone. This year, EduNations was prepping one-hundred-fifty 6th grade students to take the National Primary School Examinations (which must be passed to enter Junior Secondary School) and one hundred-thirty-eight 9th grade students to take the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (which must be passed to enter Senior Secondary School).

In the USA, one could expect parents to assume some teaching role in the absence of school. In rural Sierra Leone however, almost all students are the first generation in their family to attend school, so there is simply no one able to help children study. What to do? EduNations quickly developed a home-schooling program, visiting each child in their home to teach while still maintaining all the social-distancing and personal sanitation practices. The home-schooling program kept students moving forward and was a great demonstration of EduNations’ commitment to its students’ success.

While the home-schooling program worked well in many ways, it was never the same as the normal school and classroom setting which worked best for both students and teachers. Recognizing the benefits and believing schools could manage the risks, the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Schools asked all candidates to return to school to prepare for and write their exams.

Since then, with no reported COVID-19 cases in all the schools across the country, we were delighted at the announcement for all schools to reopen and for all staff and students to return to school on October 5, 2020.

Of course, EduNations staff and students are thankful for the ongoing support of donors and the Board of Directors which has allowed us to get all the necessary supplies – including thermometers, hand washing facilities, face masks – to commence the school year. EduNations was also able to provide school supplies to all students as they returned back to the classroom. As one of our teachers put it, “we are just so happy to be back in this environment with our students.

Links:

• http://EduNations.org

Through the efforts of our board of directors, the generous support of our donors and the participation of the members of the Rokassa community, we are delighted to announce that the construction of the EduNations Hope Academy Senior Secondary School in Rokassa has been completed!

Back in 2014, Pa Alhaji Kamara, the principal landowner and most senior stakeholder in Rokassa village told us: “We have a huge piece of land, but our subsistence farming cannot bring us lasting development. Please build us a school.” At that time, the village of about 280 with about 200 school-aged children never had a school, nor had the six surrounding villages of over 1,000 population. The very few people that went to school from Rokassa, who Pa Kamara could count on his hands, had to commute eight miles a day to find the nearest school or live away from their families to attend schools in other towns. With so few people getting an education and no hope for a different future, life in Rokassa brought a high infant mortality rate, undiagnosed illnesses, and practices such as early arranged marriages, child labor, and female genital mutilation. Without schools to provide a catalyst for change, the outlook for the future was bleak.

But with Pa Kamara’s invitation, EduNations recognized an opportunity to help transform of the community. The EduNations board voted to build a nursery school and a primary school to prepare students for the National Primary School Examinations. When the first students began to graduate and pass these exams, Junior Secondary Schools were started for these students to continue their schooling. Since Sierra Leone operates a 6-3-3-4 system of education (6 years of Primary school, 3 years of Junior Secondary School, 3 years of Senior Secondary School and 4 years of university education), these students had 3 years to prepare for another national exam called the Basic Certificate of Education Examination (BECE). Planning on their success, EduNations started evaluating options to build a Senior Secondary School.

Given there are other EduNations Hope Academies in Fintonia, Mapainda, Mayatta, Makump, and Gbenekoro and Rokassa was the most central location for all, it was decided to build the Senior Secondary School in Rokassa as a boarding home school for boys and girls which will cater (at least for its first three years of operations) for only students from the EduNations Hope Academies. Our objective was to continue to provide a completely free education in a safe learning environment to these students (some of whom have been with us for over 8 years).

As the students begin taking their BECE exams, we can now turn to the second phase of the project which is to complete the construction of the dormitories and furnish both the classrooms and the dormitories. This is a huge undertaking with a fairly short timeline as everything is to be in place by January 2021 but we have faith that all our needs will be provided. There are many needs still to be filled: shelves, books, desks and chairs for the library; science equipment for the laboratory; computers, desks and chairs for the computer lab; bedding for dormitories; equipment and supplies for the kitchen and dining hall.

Today we chose to rejoice in the blessing of a completely built Senior Secondary school in the village of Rokassa.  And the best part of all this is that Pa Kamara has lived to see his dream fulfilled and a different future forming for Rokassa thanks to your support.

Links:

• EduNations.org