By: Mohamed Massaquoi- Information Attaché
In September this year, His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio Co-Chaired the 2022 Transformation Education Summit in New York held on the margins of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly.
It is noteworthy that President Bio also co-chairs the Leaders Group of the High-Level Steering Committee for Sustainable Development Goal (4) alongside Audrey Azoulay, the Director General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Two months after that groundbreaking global Summit, the Deputy Permanent Representative for Political Affairs at the Permanent Mission of Sierra Leone to the United Nations, His Excellency Ambassador Amara Sowa was on Wednesday 30th November 2022 invited to the Transforming Education Summit De-Brief Breakfast Session on the Our Common Agenda Discussion Series organized by the Bahai International Community and a group of Civil Society Organization to present a status report on activities after the Summit.
During the engagement with the group, Ambassador Sowa disclosed that the UN Secretary-General, in his Our Common Agenda (OCA) Report, encouraged Member States to think about the long term and to deliver more for young people and succeeding generations.
This, he said, will prepare them better for the challenges ahead, adding that there should also be improved global cooperation in supporting the transformation of education systems.
“A good example is the System Transformation Grant provided to developing and fragile states by the Global Partnership for Education,” he said.
Ambassador Sowa further noted that some of the gains made during the Transforming Education Summit could contribute immensely to the UN Summit of Future scheduled to be held in 2024, by leveraging on the work of the SDG4 High-Level Committee co-chaired by UNESCO and Sierra Leone which is playing a key role in ensuring the effective follow-up of the Summit.
He said dilated on the Radical Inclusion Policy adopted by the Government of President Bio aimed at increasing accessibility to learning centers including Schools for pregnant girls/child mothers, children with disabilities, very poor children, and children in hard-to-reach areas, adding that the policy has been very useful in strengthening the education sector.
He concluded that the government has developed a new curriculum for both Junior and Senior secondary schools and has also introduced a civic education program.