By: Ilyasa Baa
Former Financial Secretary of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s (SLPP) Party in Constituency 034, Patrick S. Thullah, in an exclusive interview with this medium said the Free Quality Education (FQE) is a success but emphasized that the condition of teachers has to be improved further for them to give their very best.
Mr. Thullah has been an Educationist with forty – five years of experience in the education sector. Speaking to this medium during a visit to the Constituency (034), the elderly man said the FQE makes parents and guardians glad and happy to send their children, especially the girl child to school. He said his assessment of the system has been ongoing since its launching by H. E. Dr. Julius Maada Bio in 2018. He said the children are as well happy to go to school despite the global economic crunch affecting them together with their parents. He expressed the need for subsidies to be allocated on time to the schools in his constituency so the administrators would be able to use the fund for the maintenance and smooth running of those schools. He described the payment of school fees by the government as laudable and a step in the right direction towards boosting the human capital of the country.
He commended the government for its teachers’ employment drive noting that more needs to be done towards their welfare. “Considering the growing population of pupils in the headquarter towns, the government needs to fast tract the construction of more classrooms”, said the Educationist. He added that the President’s initiative has put the country on the map of nations that are serious about using education to transform his country.
He called on President Bio not to listen to detractors but continue with his new direction agenda.