Roaming Pen – Should we accept the new education system? (Part 1)

The All People’s Congress (APC) led Government of Sierra Leone has made public a ‘white paper’ on the findings and recommendations of the Professor Gbamanja Commission of Inquiry on education. (Photo: Abdul Karim Kabia (Fonti) – Roaming Pen)

The Professor Gbamanja Commission of Inquiry was set up in 2009 to identify and investigate the reasons for the poor performances of pupils in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and West Africa Senior Schools Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in Sierra Leone.

The Commission took into account the roles played by stakeholders and factors including the school environment, home environment, the curriculum, teachers and their attitudes and methodologies, teachers’ motivation, pupils preparedness, class sizes, the two shift system, tertiary institutions, proprietors, head teachers, pupils, the ministry of education officials, and social factors, that contributed to the drop in education.

After visiting other West African countries and all the districts in the country, the Commission was able to identify most of the barriers to quality education and proffered immediate, short term, medium term and long term recommendations to improve and sustain pupils’ performance in the BECE and WASSCE Examinations.

The primary aim of the Commission’s recommendations is to transform the country’s dwindling education standards to the enviable and acceptable standards it used to maintain.

As per the recommendations of the Commission, government has resolved to inject radical changes in the country’s education system.

Whilst some of these ‘reforms’ have been welcomed as the way out for the restoration of Sierra Leone’s past glory in education, others are believed to be counterproductive and untenable.

The question of whether or not to accept the proposed changes in the country’s education system is still being debated.

In this piece, the Roaming Pen will highlight and critically analyze some of the immediate recommendations of the Professor Gbamanja Commission, most of which has already been accepted by the government for implementation.

Modification of the 6-3-3-4 system of education

The government has accepted the recommendation of the Commission for a review of the 6-3-3-4 system to 6-3-4-4. This means the duration of senior secondary schooling would be extended by one year.

In my view, accepting this recommendation is a laudable step by the government considering the numerous challenges pupils face to start their senior schooling. It is no secret that most pupils that are promoted to senior schools, after excelling in their BECE exams, are never enrolled until the second term of their SSS1 academic year. This occurrence is tied to several factors including but not limited to the lateness in releasing the BECE results and the huge number of pupils seeking admission in the various schools across the country. Some are only admitted during the third/final term of the academic year.

Over the years, this has been one of the major factors responsible for the massive failure of pupils who sat to the WASSCE, because the WASSCE syllabus starts from SSS1 unto SSS3.

The introduction of this system will serve as an opportunity for the pupils to have more time to prepare for their exams and come out with flying colours.

Therefore, taking cognizance of that stumbling block is a step in the right direction and its proper implementation will definitely reduce the number of WASSCE failures.

Free and compulsory primary education

Government has accepted the recommendation of the Commission for free and compulsory primary education, in both policy and practice, subject to the involvement of Local Councils in the implementation of the policy.

There exists a government policy on free and compulsory primary education. Sadly, this policy had only existed in theory and not in practice as the naked reality is that the parents have been actually paying indirectly for the primary education of their children. The major saboteurs of this government policy are the teachers and other school authorities, who continue to devise various means of extorting money from pupils and their parents on frequent intervals.

At the end of every academic year, teachers levy special fees on pupils/parents prior to releasing the end of year report cards of the pupils. Those who prove reluctant to pay the Le5,000 for their report cards face the consequence of never setting eyes on their academic performance.

School authorities make unnecessary demands from pupils for extra-curricula activities, including but not limited to games, sports and graduation.

Teachers give assignments to pupils and force them to pay a certain amount on submission of the assignments and they go to an extent of not accepting the assignments and failing pupils who refuse to pay.

Teachers in primary schools use petty trading as criteria for passing their subjects. Pupils who decline to buy the half-baked food stuff prepared by the teachers face the penalty of being mercilessly beaten, sent out of the classrooms and even losing grades during tests and exams. Those who patronize with the teachers in their trade are put in the good book of such teachers and are rewarded with undeserved grades to the detriment of brilliant pupils. Teachers also force pupils to attend their syndicate classes.

Taking the aforementioned into account, is Sierra Leone actually operating a FREE and COMPULSORY primary education? The answer is definitely a big NO, as there is no doubt that what is actually being implemented can best be described as an “expensive free education” system.

Therefore, the need for proper and strict monitoring of the free education government policy cannot be overemphasized, and devolving such function to the local councils is welcome news.

We just hope and pray that the local councils, especially the Freetown City Council (FCC), will not let us down in this regard.

Establishment of Teaching Service Commission

The recommendation for the establishment of the Teaching Service Commission with a review of the conditions of service of teachers as a top priority action has also been accepted by the government. Although the general mandate of the Teaching Service Commission is yet unknown, it is envisaged that the Commission will look into the conditions of service of the teachers so as to improve their salary scale. It is also expected that this Commission will actively monitor the activities of the teachers to ensure that the laxity in the execution of duties of the teachers is halted.

I am sure that the resolve of the government to establish such a Commission is to address the issue of low pay of teachers, which has been severally forwarded as an excuse by most teachers for demanded monies from parents and pupils. There is no doubt that the teachers have a point as they must survive, but their reaction towards this issue is tantamount to corruption, extortion and wickedness.  The teachers must not use their plights as a yardstick to punish parents and pupils. They should know that the parents and pupils are not responsible for their hardship and must not be victimized.

The Commission must set out well defined criteria and guidelines which the teachers must abide by.

It is therefore hoped that the teachers will shelve their wicked attitude after their conditions of service would have been improved to an accepted standard or will have the Commission to contend with in an instance of defiance of set regulations.

In part two of this analysis, the Roaming Pen will continue to critically analyze the proposed changes in the country’s education system, especially with regards to its impact on the parents, pupils and other stakeholders.

Abdul Karim Kabia (Fonti), Freetown

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