By George M.O. Williams
The Ministry of Technical and Higher Education (MTHE) and the Ministry of Basic and Senior Education (MBSSE) has on Friday December 9, 2022, concluded a week long evaluation of the challenges and gains in the education sector in Sierra Leone.
The Officer at the Non-Governmental Organization Desk (NGO) in the Technical and Higher Education Ministry, Emmanuel Dauda, said that the purpose of the engagement was to address the challenges in the education sector, make durable recommendations to be used in the coming years; and also complement the hard work of the ministries to achieve success in education in the past years.
He added that they also wanted to increase the visibility of the work they had been doing in the ministries citing that as a sector the ministry intends for its partners to know what they have done, and applauded partners for their support in the goal to achieve learning outcomes in Sierra Leone.
“We want the population to be knowledgeable of the work we have done as a sector. We have also been able to create a platform for education sharing through stakeholder dialogue,” Dauda said.
The Deputy Minister of MBSSE, Emily Gogra said that the engagement had given reassurance to international partners through the commitment and performance of children during public examination, and pledged to continuously collaborate with them to transform education in Sierra Leone.
She added that Sierra Leone is fortunate to have the political will to change the sector, and further said that in some other countries less emphasis is placed in education, which reflects in comparatively less money being allocated in the education sector in Sierra Leone where Government allocates 22 percent of its national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in education.
Gogra mentioned that every department in the ministries had been meaningful in achieving the much needed improvement in education; adding that the financial gap must be addressed on time to undertake progress activities in education.
The Senior Education Adviser at Irish Embassy, Cecilia Brown said that the Embassy intends to adopt a new strategy next year which will focus on improving education and adding that Irish Embassy will also play an important role in implementing the Government’s priority in education.
She added that the Irish Embassy will also contribute in the multi – donor trust fund managed by the World Bank adding that they had recently funded programs with UNICEF for out of school strategy, thus re – strategizing the Irish Embassy’s approach to address the challenges of out-of-schools project.