March 31, 2021
By Ilyasa Baa
Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Dr. David Moinina Sengeh has said his Ministry has started implementing almost all the promises made in the 2018 manifesto of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP).
He added that they are one hundred percent on track and “the Ministry is quite determined to ensuring that the strides made in the Free Quality Education is sustained”.
In his defense over his 100% rating, Dr. Sengeh pointed out that the implementation of the manifesto promises is broken into different segments including the Free Quality Education which has led to the increase in the number of school going pupils, the radical inclusion approach which sends hundreds of pregnant girls back to school, the feeding of pupils in various schools are some of the things he highlighted to have been implemented as enshrined in his party constitution.
According to him, stakeholders of Karene district commended the Ministry for letting their pregnant girls back to school; a policy the former government was opposed to, noting that in fact the number of girls getting pregnant at school in Sierra Leone is lower compared to countries like Ghana, South Africa and Kenya where more school girls get impregnated, the Minister stated. He said allowing pregnant girls back to school, shows that government is progressive and working in line with ECOWAS protocols. He expressed his satisfaction over the donation of glasses to senior secondary pupils of the Blind School as part of government’s radical inclusion in the education sector. He allayed the fears of school monitors by saying that the Ministry of Finance is working on their payment and will reach them as soon as possible.
The Minister has called on the public to verify social media information with the Ministry, pointing out that some information passing round social media about the Ministry is not true. He said the fake news don’t carry his signature, stamp or letter head and sometimes not even dated, he added.
It could be recalled that in his speech on the launch of the Free Quality Education in 2019, President Julius Maada Bio said, “when I proposed giving every Sierra Leonean child access to free quality education, they pilloried and laughed at the idea. But majority of Sierra Leoneans believed in my vision and voted for me. This Free Quality Education is for every Sierra Leonean. In that speech, the President had gone further compelling Sierra Leoneans to own the Free Quality Education programme and stay fully committed to supervising and supporting each element of the programme for the good of the country.
Demonstrating its commitment to education and boosting the country’s human capital, the government is allocating 21% of its annual budget to education and human capital development having fast-tracked much needed infrastructural reforms in the education sector. The government has recruited over four thousand teachers with over a hundred million subsidies being paid to schools. The Ministry states that about three billion Leones was allocated for furniture whilst a total of sixty-nine billion Leones (LE 69 Billion) have already been allocated towards the school feeding programme.