By Samuel Sesay | Project Leader
This past March, a new government was elected in Sierra Leone. Just six months into governance, Sierra Leone’s new democratically elected President, Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio, fulfilled one of his campaign promises by launching the flagship initiative of free and quality education on Monday, August 20th. This initiative ensures increased access to government-assisted schools for all Sierra Leonean children from Nursery to Senior Secondary levels and it is estimated that over 1.5 million children will benefit.
During the launch of the program, the government affirmed the initiative will receive support from donor partners – including UK Aid, World Bank, Irish Aid, World Food Program and UNICEF. The free education program will be phased over five years. The initiative will waive the payment of tuition and admission fees, as well as provide teaching and learning materials with an initial emphasis on English language and mathematics text books to all secondary schools in the country. Moreover, this program will take on payment for public examination fees such as the National Primary School Examination (NPSE), Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and West Africa Senior Secondary School Examination (WASSCE). Although the initiative is only for students in government schools and government-assisted schools, EduNations and other mission and private schools are offered the opportunity to apply to the government through the Ministry of Basic Education and Senior Secondary Schools to become government-assisted schools and benefit from the project. EduNations has made the decision to engage the government through the Ministry of Basic Education and Senior Secondary School for the benefit of our students and their communities.
We are pleased to report that EduNations has already had two encouraging meetings with the Minister of Basic Education and Senior Secondary Schools, Dr. Alpha Timbo, as well as with the Deputy Directors of Education in the five districts where our schools are operated. The goal of all these meetings is to ensure that our students benefit from the free quality education initiative by way of the provision of school supplies and payment of teachers’ salaries and subsidies.
Our hope is that participation in this program will not only lighten EduNations’ financial burden and improve our relationship with the government, but also that we can continue to increase the amount of under-privileged students we serve. While we are thankful for the prospects of the new initiatives, if approved, the government support will only cover a small portion of our operational expenses, so we greatly value your continued support of our mission as we continue to serve the children in Sierra Leone.
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By Sarah Pietryga | Development Coordinator
By Sarah Pietryga | Development Coordinator
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