Education Minister addresses UNESCO in Paris
Sierra Leone’s Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Dr. Minkailu Bah, last Friday addressed the 36th Session of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) General Conference in Paris, France. (Photo: Dr. Minkailu Bah addressing the UNESCO conference in Paris)
Below is Dr. Bah’s full speech at the general conference:
Let me start my presentation by congratulating the President on her election to preside over this 36th Session of UNESCO General Conference and to also congratulate Madam Irina Bokova on her elevation to the high office of Director General of UNESCO and to wish her a successful tenure of office.
Madam President, I have the honour and pleasure to convey to you warm felicitations from the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, His Excellency Dr Ernest Bai Koroma. Sierra Leone is very proud of its membership of UNESCO because of the noble ideals of the organization. Since its accession to the membership of UNESCO close to five decades ago, Sierra Leone has benefited and continues to benefit immensely from direct technical and institutional support from UNESCO especially in the Education sector. You are all aware that my country went through a ten years brutal civil war, witnessed by massive atrocities, human suffering and extensive destruction of public institutional infrastructure. Almost a decade ago since the end of the war in 2002 the country has been grappling with the challenges of post-conflict reconstruction and development. Thankfully, as a nation, we have enjoyed the good will, commitment and support of the international community in our desire to rebuild the county from the ashes of war.
Madam President, In terms of social and economic development, Sierra Leone is in a very unenviable position. Notwithstanding, demand and consequently enrolment at all levels of education has increased tremendously in the last 6/7 years. The increase has been particularly large at the Grade 1 to 9 levels, i.e. the basic education level. Between 2004 and 2010, overall enrolment at the basic education level rose from under a million to almost a million and a half. The enrolment of boys increased by 42% whilst that of girls increased by 58%. Over the same period of time, the Gender Parity Index (GPI) value based on Gross Enrolment Rates (GER) for Grade 1 to 6, rose from 0.90 to 0.94 whilst that for Grade 7 to 9 rose from 0.66 to 0.80.
Our success in significantly increasing access and enrolment and reducing gender disparity has brought in its wake a number of challenges. Classroom/School construction could not keep pace with the increase in enrolment and large classes as well as double shift schooling are now the norm in cities and large towns. The training of teachers could also not keep pace with enrolment increase and untrained teachers together with many individuals teaching at levels higher than that for which they were trained are now found at every level of schooling.
Madam President, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, as mentioned earlier, the education sector, together with other sectors took a nosedive during the period of the war. Almost all educational institutional facilities were destroyed right across the country. School children were abducted and conscripted as child soldiers. The contemporary and most daunting challenge is to provide access to quality education and skills training for the children who missed out on formal education during the war. This entails improved access to standardized demand-driven Technical and Vocational Educational Training (TVET) skills. At this point I want to specifically remind Madam Director General that, the Government of Sierra Leone made a humble request through UNESCO Regional Office in Accra, Ghana for the services of an international expert in Curriculum Development for the TVET Project currently being implemented by my Ministry with funding from the Islamic Development Bank. I am kindly appealing that this request be urgently considered to ensure speedy implementation of the TVET project, the completion of which we consider to be critical to the development of the Tech/Voc sub-sector in Sierra Leone.
The United Nations and its allied agencies especially UNESCO, UNDP and UNICEF have been at the forefront of supporting our post-conflict development efforts- particularly in the education sector. The development strides of any nation cannot be adequately assessed without due reference to their education profile. Education is the key to development; it is the hob around which all other things revolve.
Madam President, UNESCO has helped and continues to demonstrate commitment to assisting Sierra Leone in the development of education. A National Policy on Teacher Training and Development and a TVET Policy has been formulated by the Government through technical support from UNESCO. Work is also underway in collaboration with UNESCO towards institutional reform for Teacher Training and Development and the provision of facilities for non-formal adult education in our communities nationwide.
The outcome of these initiatives has led to the establishment of a Teaching Service Commission which, we hoped, will address all teacher related problems. Furthermore, my Government has come up with a government White Paper on Education which targets so many areas, paramount among them being Pre-primary Education and the education of the girl child. The government education packages is fairly comprehensive and makes provision for free primary education, which embraces the supply of core text books, teaching and learning material, and the payment of fees for all public examinations.
Let me hasten to inform this gathering that UNESCO’s intervention in Sierra Leone has not been limited to the Education Sector alone. Very recently, in the first year of the Biennium, there was a proposal to UNESCO for the provision of a technical expert to work with our local staff, for the preparation of a comprehensive project document for the restoration of Bunce Island as a UNESCO historical site. Bunce Island, members would want to know, was a slave port from where captured slaves were carted away to the Americans and other countries. I am also happy to mention that UNESCO is in the process of setting up a Media Resource Centre for all media practitioners in Sierra Leone.
Madam President, colleague Ministers of Government of UNESCO member states, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, let me inform members of this august gathering that during the 35TH General Conference, I was honoured to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between UNESCO and the Government of Sierra Leone. The full implementation of this MoU is yet to be achieved. I would therefore want to use this podium to appeal to the Director General and her executive to ensure the full implementation of the intent of that MoU.
Madam President distinguished ladies and gentlemen, Sierra Leone as a developing nation is anxious to bring rapid, sustainable and all inclusive development to its people. In conclusion therefore, I am appealing to all and sundry especially the International Development and Financial Institutions to lend their support to the development aspirations of Sierra Leone to bring about the positive changes and human development enshrined in my Government’s Agenda for Change (Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper– PRSP II) and the Millennium Development Goals.
I thank you for your attention and may God bless us All.
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