September 27, 2021
Albert Baron Ansu
Sierra Leoneans are going to count their blessings one by one when that moment of reckoning comes in the aftermath of 2023. There is too much to dig out from the annals of scrapbook history.
Now dispassionate pundit say the transformation taking place in the education sector under the new direction government is going to pave the way for the retention of power in 2023.
I am going to take you through two books, starting with the scrap book- reliving dark memories that saw the country sloping down Athenian height. How we came to be ranked high in the sub region of West Africa in the field of learning is linked to many things; one dominant indicator could be Fourah Bay College- Durham UK connection when curriculum were same. It was probably the bright side of colonialism and those cohorts of graduates that evolved cut out academic superiority than what would emerge decades later- when the decadence of bad government set in.
The immediate post-colonial period of Sir Milton and Sir Albert Margai sustained the colonial foundation of giving premium to education.
Let us dig out the trove of book of fame. In 1958, three years before the country gained the status of being an independent nation-state, the first major White Paper on Education in Sierra Leone was published, declaring, “the ultimate goal must, of course, be the establishment of fee-free universal compulsory education” (Sierra Leone Government, 1958, p. 1).
At that early stage, the long-term aim was not “merely to produce literates but to enable pupils to make a beginning in obtaining the necessary mental equipment to enjoy a fuller, happier life and thereby to make a greater contribution to the welfare and development of the community as a whole” (Sierra Leone Government, 1958, p. 1- 2).
In the short run, goals were made to double the number of children in school, concomitant with remedying the disparity between educational facilities in the Colony (where it was estimated that 80% of children had access to schooling) and the Protectorate hinterland (where only 6% had access).
Besides laying the groundwork for the same themes of equity and access that persist to the present-day, education bureaucrats also foresaw the potential discord that a universal primary system could create if it was not linked with post-graduation opportunities.
The Government thus proposed to supplant junior secondary schools with three-year Secondary Modern Schools that would offer a “general education closely related to the interests and environment of the pupils and with a wide range covering the literary as well as the practical aspects of life” (Sierra Leone Government, 1958, p. 12).
What we have just gone through as historic insight into the solid foundation that the SLPP inherited from the colonial master in promoting access to education was shortlived. Power change hands when the SLPP lost to the APC, a government that rallied the supposed plebeians against a supposed elitist bookish party. Siaka Stevens then President of the APC that formed from the Lancaster meeting did not take seriously the education system bequeathed. Thriving on the illiteracy of its political base at the grassroot was a core strategy to create the country as a one party state. The proof of this assertion was the murdering of the crème of the party, Taqi, Forna etal on trump up charges. Steven is on record to have jibed in Krio: dem say Bailor Barrie you say Davidson Nicol? The contrast in the two names was stark—Barrie rich but representative of illiteracy and Nicol a symbol poor and literate. Here was a president extolling illiteracy and denouncing literacy.
It was in this step that his successor ex-President Joseph Saidu Momoh followed. Under him the country submerged in educational input and output. This was the time the country’s teachers were most demotivated, went for months without pay and there were strike actions of downing tools. Keeping students and pupils at home than ever before in the country’s history.
The Revolutionary United Front civil war erupted in the early 1990’s. The decadence of socio economic and political governance manifested in the rot of education was one of the cardinal justifications of the rebellion. No Sierra Leonean conscious at the time could deny the charge that would precipitate the National Provisional Ruling Council, NPRC military junta ouster of the Momoh oligarchy that annihilated education in this country.
When the army eventually handed over power for a return to democracy to be charted in in 1996; thanks to the patriotism of now President Bio to whom the book of fame on education redemption is written, we saw the fervor of late President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah for educational rejuvenation based on colonial agenda referenced above. The ambience of school rehabilitation and reconstruction dubbed SABABU, the local dialect word for privilege took the country by storm. All chiefdoms were covered.
When by accident of history the opposition All Peoples Congress led by Ernest Bai Koroma took over power from Tejan Kabbah in 2006 we saw the government anti education posture, if not its effort in effacing the gloss from the past government’s educational investment by instituting a Smega Jammeh Commission of Inquiry that sought to probe the SABABU project of the Kabbah administration. It was clear- the Ernest Bai Koroma government was going after the then Kabbah government most significant project in investing in education to rebuild and reconstruct schools all over the country. The Smega Jammeh could not nail Dr. Alpha Wureh, then and current Minister of Education of Tertiary and Higher Education.
At this stage of the chronicle, the contrast between two government policy directions towards education can be situated. One government, the Sierra Leone Peoples government has shown profound commitment to improving education in the extant flagship free and quality education recording billions of dollars in investment to increase roll of students, recruitment of teachers, paying of subventions to public schools, expanding the scope of scholarship and incentivizing of science and technology and other raft of reforms
This is a contrast to the APC, whose then minister Dr. of Education Dr. Minkailu Bah fought for over ten years to rid teachers’ pay roll of ghost to no avail. What we could remember him for in the scrap book is the corrupting of the education more than any other minister of education; and the confiscation of his house posthumously is not accidental.
In the book of fame the Bio government has added a chapter as evident in the London Global Education Summit. The President was among few heads of states invited to that summit where he granted an interview to the BBC elucidated in political intent about the emphasis on education in building human capital. To illustrate this passion he spoke at the global summit on the policy of allowing pregnant women and girls to attend school. This is purposive in bridging gender disparity, where women and girls have been lagging. President Bio’s Minister of Basic Education and Chief of Innovation, David Moinina Sengeh who is an icon of technological and modernization infusion into free quality education has been able to market trajectory of free and quality education at the global scene. He is a brain behind the creation of an app for mobile phones for students to access grades in public exams data free. It is cost saving for parents.
The resultant effect of this is relative improved learning outcomes as the figures are showing. There is prospect for more donor support to augment local funding in restoring eroded colonial education landmarks that will be replete in chapters of book of our own educational book of fame. And Sierra Leoneans are going to reward this Grand National investment in votes of according political legitimacy to the genuine stewards.