BY MOHAMED M. SESAY
In its recently published 2021 Report, the United Nations has confessed that since President Bio’s New Direction Government launched the Free Quality School Education (FQE) programme in 2018.
The report starts that since the launch of the FQE children, adolescents, young women, and youth have increased access to comprehensive quality education services with improved learning outcomes.
In 2021, the report also reveals that the gross enrolment rate of pre-primary education has increased to 20.6 percent as compared to 19.3 percent the previous year and compared to a baseline of 11.5 percent (MICS).
The report furthers that between 2020 and 2021, the transition rate between primary and lower secondary education has also increased from 94.9 to 97.6 percent towards inclusive and equitable education. It adds that UNICEF has supported two initiatives that seek to provide evidence on why children are not in school or do not stay in school. UNICEF through two NGOs and the Overseas Development Initiative (ODI) is also implementing a pilot on addressing school-related gender based violence (SRGBV).
With the introduction of the Free Quality Education, the report continues that more children are now completing school with 8 out of 10 primary school children completing primary school and 7 out of 10 junior secondary school completing school. It says that UNICEF contributed to this increase with the construction of 30 new ECD centers and development of holistic ECD training packages and creative Information Education and Communication (IEC) materials. UNICEF also trained a cadre of ECD experts who conducted decentralized training and provided ECD materials for 23,300 children.
The Report also reminds that Parliament has approved an Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy (IECD) which outlines minimum standards and guidelines to promote high quality and standardized ECD programming. In order to improve learning outcomes, UNICEF provided teacher training to 6,925 early grade teachers or approximately 78 percent of early grade teachers in six low performing districts. In support of universal education, UNICEF, and government partners led the development of the next Education Sector Plan (ESP) 2022-2026.
In support of adolescent skills development, the 2021 United Nations Report also indicates that UNICEF launched the UPSHIFT programme in Sierra Leone reaching 260 adolescent girls. As part of Reimagine Education and to promote remote or self-learning, UNICEF also digitized the UPSHIFT content and ECD materials on the Learning Passport platform.
“UNICEF updated the 2016 Out-of-School Children Study (OOSC) which served as a platform to develop a national OOSC strategy. Contributing to efficient and equitable budget management, UNICEF in collaboration with the World Bank (WB) initiated an Education Public Expenditure Review (PER) UNESCO supported sub-regional capacities and supported distance and blended learning though an online platform Imagine Learning”, the report states.
UNESCO supported resilience of schools to respond to COVID-19 challenges and to future shocks to education systems through development of modules for training programme by UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA), for master teachers, radio and television technical staff.
It also supported capacity development through workshops on content creation for university staff to ensure effectiveness of E-Learning and Mobile-Learning, and the lower secondary education completion rate increased from 68.5 to 73.9 percent thus, indicating progress towards achieving country programme targets. There was a 36 percent increase in total number of children enrolled in school from pre-primary to senior secondary.
