Since the Government launched the Free Quality School Education Programme in 2018, access to education has significantly improved, according to the 2021 United Nations Annual Results Report which was produced by UN Country Team.
The report will be launched today in Freetown.
The report shows that in 2021, the gross enrolment rate of preprimary education increased to 20.6 percent compared to 19.3 percent the previous year and compared to a baseline of 11.5 percent.
Between 2020 and 2021, the transition rate between primary and lower secondary education increased from 94.9 to 97.6 percent and the lower secondary education completion rate increased from 68.5 to 73.9 percent thus indicating progress towards achieving country programme targets to ensure that Children, adolescents, young women, and youth have increased access to comprehensive quality education services with improved learning outcomes, according to the Report.
There was a 36 percent increase in total number of children enrolled in school from pre-primary to senior secondary.
The Report shows that more children are completing school with 8 out of 10 primary school children completing primary school and 7 out of 10 junior secondary school completing school.
It cited that UNICEF contributed to this increase with the construction of 30 new ECD centres and development of holistic ECD training packages and creative Information Education and Communication (IEC) materials. UNICEF also trained a cadre of ECD experts who conducted decentralized training and provided ECD materials for 23,300 children.
The report indicates that Parliament approved an Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy (IECD) which outlines minimum standards and guidelines to promote high quality and standardized ECD programming.
Towards improved learning outcomes, UNICEF provided teacher training to 6,925 early grade teachers or approximately 78 percent of early grade teachers in six low performing districts.
In support of universal education, the report mentioned that UNICEF, and government partners led the development of the next Education Sector Plan (ESP) 2022-2026.
UNICEF also updated the 2016 Out-of-School Children Study (OOSC) which served as a platform to develop a national OOSC strategy.
Contributing to efficient and equitable budget management, UNICEF in collaboration with the World Bank (WB) initiated an Education Public Expenditure Review.
Towards inclusive and equitable education, UNICEF supported two initiatives that seek to provide evidence on why children are not in school or do not stay in school. UNICEF through two NGOs and the Overseas Development Initiative (ODI) is implementing a pilot on addressing school-related genderbased violence (SRGBV).
In support of adolescent skills development, UNICEF also launched the UPSHIFT programme in Sierra Leone reaching 260 adolescent girls. As part of Reimagine Education and to promote remote or self-learning, UNICEF digitized the UPSHIFT content and ECD materials on the Learning Passport platform.
UNESCO as well supported resilience of schools to respond to COVID-19 challenges and to future shocks to education systems through development of modules for a training programme by UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA), for master teachers, radio and television technical staff. It also supported capacity development through workshops on content creation for university staff to ensure effectiveness of E-Learning and Mobile-Learning.
UNESCO supported sub-regional capacities and supported distance and blended learning though an online platform ImagineLearning.Africa. Under IICBA, it developed 10 T-Pack Based Modules, comprising seven subject based modules and three general modules.
UNIDO effectively mobilized US$3.8 million to establish an ultra-modern automotive maintenance centre in Freetown to help train auto-mechanics.
IOM offered life changing support to 1,506 vulnerable youth (including 531 young women) who received vocational skills enhancement; 921 youth (including 329 young women) who were supported to find jobs in Sierra Leone; 413 youths (including 158 young women) who were supported with business start-up kits; 240 entrepreneurs (including 64 young women), who receive advanced courses in business
skills management and 16 entrepreneurs (including 4 young women) who received crowdfunding support.
By Sallieu S. Kanu