By: Mohamed M. Sesay
In the ongoing Inter-Governmental Summit to improve learning outcomes on the theme, “Foundational Learning Exchange”, President Bio on Monday the 6th of February 2023, assured development partners and Government Ministers from other countries that he believes education is a fundamental right and not a privilege.
He said such pronouncement is reflected in his government policies, practices, and what proportion of the national budget he allocates to financing education.
President Bio also intimated that he believes in the exercise of that fundamental right, access to education must be universal, equal, comprehensively safe, and radical inclusion of all genders, abilities, pregnant, rural-dwelling, all ages, and all socio-economic backgrounds.
“We have added one million more learners, especially girls, achieved gender parity in basic education, and registered higher achievement outcomes for girls”, he said.
President Bio continued that his government also caters to provide specialized learning and teaching materials and provide hot school meals in poor and deprived areas.
He added that his government has improved that gender parity is possible; girls are high achieving learners; with free education, from pre-primary through university, for girls who study STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Agriculture – in our unique case–, and Mathematics) disciplines, unprecedented numbers of girls have enrolled in these STEM courses since the introduction his flagship Free-Quality School Education Programme.
President Bio also admonished development partners and Minister of Government within the sub-region that, his New Direction Government believes that they can train the highly resourceful and talented teachers and school administrators at the highest levels, partner with communities, leverage technology, and predicate a rich and innovative curriculum based on five key competencies (the five “Cs”) Creativity, Comprehension, Critical Thinking, Computational Thinking, and Civics.
To his mind, President Bio acknowledged that the persistent learning poverty in sub-Saharan Africa in particular predates this single global disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
For years, he said learning losses have been caused by years of chronic political and social instability, underinvestment in education planning and financing, and the lingering but ever-pronounced impact of climate change on societies and economies.
He therefore, encouraged all and sundry to address learning loss and learning poverty at the foundational levels. If they fail to get this right, he said the continent would be depriving their countries and continent of a whole generation of nation-builders.
“At a very personal level had I not learned to read, write, and be numerate at age 10, I would, in all probability, not have been President of Sierra Leone today. That is the difference education can make. With foundational learning, therefore, we can give every child a fighting chance to contribute to his/her fair share of the nation-building process”, he intimated.
On his part, the World Bank Global Director on Education Global Practices Jaime Saavedra, expressed endless elation to be part of the summit for Foundational Learning Exchange. He said the Covid-19 left the worst shock to education in lower middle income countries and across the entire globe. He added that reading together and writing numeracy are building block to all other education outcomes. He encouraged all to adopt an ambitious but realistic goal in promoting education across the continent.
Jaime Saavedra however, expressed good news that the tremendous gains and changes have happened in some countries. He continued that in order to see continuous changes, the continent needs to have financial resources, political commitment, and implementation capacity. He stressed on the availability of financial resources to achieve colossal gains in the education sector. He encouraged member states to ensure that they put all the finances needed in schools. He said government spending towards education across the globe, needs to be protected. He therefore, concluded by commending President Bio for putting tremendous attention and 21% budget allocation to education in Sierra Leone.