Education in Sierra Leone: A challenge to be met
Undoubtedly, it must be agreed upon by all citizens of Sierra Leone that comparatively speaking, the standard of education is on the progressive decline in the only place we can truly call home. For someone who so dearly loves his country, the thought of this makes me spend sleepless nights pondering where we went wrong. If the great country once known as “The Athens of West Africa” is now so much behind on the academic echelon, this should serve as a wake-up call for all concerned. Do I have any doubts that this can be overcome? Not at all. One thing that my struggles to become what I am today have taught me to believe in is the Buddhist philosophy that “A man must work hard to gain his own salvation.” I am pretty certain that as a great nation, there is nothing we cannot overcome provided we pull together and realize the severity of the problem and what consequences it may bring. In this case, if Sierra Leone continues on the winding academic footpath of the present time, the result will be a poorly groomed future workforce, and consequently, economic starvation. We as Sierra Leoneans are not ready for this. We have been a great nation, and shall remain great. (Photo: Sorie Gassama Ph.D, author)
Having received all of my post secondary education in the east and west, I have been schooled that the backbone of any nation is education. Humans are as flowers; we bloom, and fade away. So being, if the gardener forgets to water and trim the flower tree itself, the blooming and fading cycle gives way to a limping trunk that can only be replaced, not rejuvenated. We are the blooming flowers that bloomed because our predecessors took good care to manicure our academic paths. If we fail to do the same for our children, the system will ultimately collapse leaving us to bear the brunt. Let us take our time to study the budget layout of all developed countries, and we shall find out that education is given the utmost priority. Children in these countries excel academically because the priority that is given to education embeds them with the belief that it must not be taken lightly. As is at present, not the United States, not Great Britain, but the tiny country of Finland is lauded as the country with the best system of education. The paramount reason for this is that a greater percentage of the budget is geared towards education. This we should learn from. If we do, and instill some changes as I will suggest at the end of my article, then we are bound to turn things around and become what we once were; the beacon of academia in West Africa.
When 6334 was introduced in 1994 under the then NPRC with Christiana Thorpe as the Secretary of State for education, the matter, though a rush up affairs had two important goals: The classification of pupils according to their abilities, and the development of the middle man power of the country. Funding was supposed to have been provided for training teachers so that they will be able to determine and grade the abilities of pupils. Rightly put, if this program was implemented as planned, the outcome would have been quite the opposite of what it is today. The question to be answered is why didn’t it come to fruition?
The answers to that question were that fore mostly; parents who are the most important stakeholders in any educational system did not get sensitized on the importance of the vocational education that 6334 came with. As such, parents misconstrued the vocational education part of it as something meant for at-risk, failing, or low ability students. With the proper campaign, the stake holders would have been made to understand that these vocational institutions were meant to improve on the God given abilities of the students, thus making them financially independent and most important of all, useful and productive citizens. To make matters worse, Sierra Leone did not have the technical vocational institutes to admit these pupils with special abilities. God knows where the funding went. While teachers who were supposed to pilot the program were left ignorant, pupils took it to mean mass promotion. It was misconstrued, misunderstood, and misrepresented. With elaborate and intensive syllabi, the class periods lasting for only thirty minutes were not enough to cover what was supposed to have been covered. Thus, the system was doomed for failure, and indeed it has failed.
As a seasoned and professional educator, I am suggesting that those responsible for overseeing the educational system in Sierra Leone consider the following as strong indicators in improving an almost failing academic path that has for the past several years shown no signs of getting better. In doing so, I hope this will be construed by all Sierra Leoneans as the voice of one concerned citizen that cares a lot about his country, and will do anything in his power to make it the best in the entire universe.
Those leading the educational sector must consider teachers as seasoned professionals that represent a front dedicated to providing our children with the tools and skills necessary for them to achieve academically, develop vocationally, and compete in a rapidly changing highly technological society. A move in improving the standard of living of teachers will be a very important gesture. Pay teachers well, make sure they are self-sufficient, and hold them responsible in return for the success or failure of their students. The principals as the head teachers of the schools must be no exceptions. While being paid well, all principals of failing schools must be replaced immediately. So saying, they must play a greater role in hiring professional teachers to work for them. They should be delegated the responsibility to monitor the performances of their teachers, offering them the help they might need to improve their performances by way of offering professional development services. In the school calendar, there must be special days delegated to professional developments. On these days, the schools should afford to hire professional educators to work with their teachers in improving their approaches to classroom methodologies. Make it mandatory for all incoming classroom teachers to hold appropriate certifications in their areas. This I can further discuss, if necessary with the powers that be. A monthly pay check of five hundred dollars for bachelor’s degree holders might be a good gesture.
To make the vocational system work, the government must make available more vocational institutions. As is as present, there are not enough of these institutions to serve the nation. From a recent visit in the country, I noticed that there seem to be too many schools within a few square kilometers from each other. Some of these schools can be converted to vocational institutions while students living more than two miles from their zoned schools are bused to their schools. This is possible with the government bearing little or none of the cost. This again is open for further and thorough discussions and consultation with those specialists in educational counseling and leadership whose input and expertise are foremost in the developmental processes of any educational system.
To improve the educational system and help all Sierra Leonean children compete in a highly technological universe, I would like to suggest the following: (1) the country should make technology a major focus. (2) It will pay dividends to have all classrooms equipped with departmental computer labs. Students will use these labs to enhance their skills in all subject areas.(3) Increasing the instructional time in each class period will help teachers manage the materials they are supposed to cover.
(4) Putting in place bi-weekly assessment program will target students below the standard. (5) Pull out tutorials within the instructional day will go a long way to improve the standards of those students who are falling behind. (6) Increasing parental involvement will go a long way to improving students learning. (7) With the improvement in telephone communication, teachers should be allowed t use school phones in contacting parents to discuss the progress of their children. Recognizing parents, as partners will make them more involved in the learning process of their children.
While discussing the problems of education in Sierra Leone, the effect of the civil war must not be underestimated as one of the major factors responsible for academic retardation. There must be many children in the educational system that need plenty of help if they must survive in an academic atmosphere. This help must come by way of counseling. At present, I am not sure whether the country has well trained and certified counselors to deal with this problem. If outsiders are used to do the counseling, they may not be fits for the job to solve the issue at hand if they have not been well trained to counsel the culturally different. According to research, western psychology has been severely criticized as being ethnocentric, monocultural, and inherently biased against racial/ethnic minorities, women, gays and other culturally different groups (Carter, 1995; Laird & Green, 1996, Ridley, 1995; DW Sue. Arrredondo, & Mcdavis, 1992). It is evident that clients always feel at ease with counselors from their own backgrounds. This being true, troubled youths afloat in the school system may better relate to one of their own as counselor, instead of someone from a different race. It should be known that institutional racism has created psychological barriers between minorities and whites that are likely to interfere with the therapy process (Sue and Sue 2010). Counseling, considered as a post graduate course must be introduced in all universities in Sierra Leone.
I would like to conclude my article by emphasizing that change begins with us. If we are to succeed in changing our society, we must positively reinvent ourselves. Let us be patriots and make the love for our country paramount. Let us not forget that investing what we have to make our society the best in whatever way we deem fit, will always serve us better than amassing wealth that can go only to develop someone else’s society. A man has never been known to be buried with the wealth they amass save the pharaohs. Only your good deeds can speak for you in the world hereafter. Greed has never been known to bring in positive results. Let us love, and care for one another. A knock at your neighbor’s door in the morning to find out how he/she spent the night is enough to brighten his/her day. An elder who stops a school age child doing petty trading on the street at the time he/she is supposed to be in the classroom has just demonstrated how much he/she cares to make that child a productive citizen. Put aside political differences and work towards a certain goal. It does not matter who leads the country, what matters most is the vision he embodies for the country. Together pray for the president that he may continue to be guided. Stand with him in all he does, for in the end result it will be for the benefit of Sierra Leone and not for the good of a single individual. God Bless the Republic of Sierra Leone.
By Sorie Gassama PhD, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
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