BY MOHAMED M. SESAY
The Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary School Education Dr. David Sengeh together with the World Bank Regional Vice President Mr. Ousmane Diagana, the Minister of Technical and Higher Education professor Alpha Wurie, the Minister of Western Region Nabella Tunis, have on the Thursday the 10th of February 2022, launched the distribution of Free Quality Education Learning Materials at the St Luke’s Primary School Wilberforce Barracks.
In his statement, the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education Dr. David Sengeh intimated that they were very pleased to host the Vice President of the World Bank, and to also demonstrate in showing impact of the resources and Partnership the government enjoys with the World Bank.
He added that they chose the St. Luke’s Primary School for the launching of the distribution exercise because the school has been the conduit for implementing most of the World Bank Projects.
David Sengeh said one of the things that are very exciting for them in the Ministry is the engagement they had with teachers coupled with a lot of teacher trainings. He noted that pre-primary schools have being a critical component of their activities. He stressed that the World Bank project is very important as it builds the foundation of pupils and for the transformation of the country’s educational sector especially at pre-primary school.
He furthered that they have data which is now used for the World Bank’s acceleration programme in terms of alleviating poverty. He noted that the ability of class two pupils to read is linked with the World Bank zero learning poverty which talks about reading and comprehension at the age of ten years.
The Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education continued that all of the proposed World Bank projects are embedded in President Bio’s Free Quality Education.
“We are doing two things today. Welcoming the World Bank Regional Vice President and we are also launching the distribution of teaching materials that have been procured by the government of Sierra Leone. These learning materials are going to benefit 84 percent of government schools and Government Assisted schools”, he said.
He concluded by disclosing that they have different exercise books especially for mathematics, sharpeners, pens, pencils crayons among other key learning materials that will be distributed across all public schools.
On his part, the Regional Vice President Mr. Ousmane Diagana said he was very excited to be at the St. Luke’s Primary School. He assured that the World Bank will continue to support Sierra Leone with resources that will take care of the education sector in the country. Mr. Diagana admonished the pupils that the Ministers and other enviable personalities in the country achieved their status because they went to school.
Mr. Diagana continued that the World Bank will also push in ensuring that the education in Sierra Leone is inclusive, accessible and has quality.
He congratulated the president of Sierra Leone for allocating over 20% of the national budget towards education. He equally sent a word of felicitation to the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education for his leadership towards the educational sector. He concluded by intimating that the World Bank has made a decision to allocate 50 million dollars in supporting President Bio’s Free Quality Education.