The Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary School (MBSSE), Dr. David Sengeh has said that there has been an improvement in subject pass rate by candidates who took the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in August 2020.
According to the minister, the pass rates in especially Science and Commercial subjects including Mathematics and English in the 2020 WASSCE increased. According to him, this shows that the government is on the pathway to improving the quality of education in Sierra Leone.
He said that the overall performance of candidates in public exams is good, adding that this year’s result is not the worst given the fact that with the Free Quality Education they experienced 34% increment of pupils with the Senior secondary schools accounted for 50% more pupils over the last two years; “yet still our performance did not degenerate”.
In giving his analysis on the 2020 WASSCE, the minister said that the grades from A1 – C6 is referred to as credit, D7-E8 is pass while F9 is fail “therefore if you are calculating pass it should be from rate A1-E8”.
He further explained that the 4.5 % announced by the Ministry represented candidates with credit grades because the requirement for University of Sierra Leone is A1 – C6 in five subjects including Mathematics and English for degree courses.
He cited the 4.5 % figure is not the overall pass rate in the country, citing that the West African Examination Council (WAEC) is yet to release the pass rate for this year’s exam.
He made this statement on Monday November 23, 2020, while recounting his successes and challenges in the first year of his tenure as the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary School Education at radio Democracy 98.1 in Freetown.
Speaking on his successes, he said that since he assumed office the ministry has restructured and elevated essential departments at the ministry, including establishing a curriculum unit. He further contended that he has led the Ministry to do institutional changes including expansion of the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) by establishing offices at district level and adaptation of recruitment policies, and instituting complaint and redress mechanisms for teachers.
He added that the MBSSE has also developed several policies that would enhance transformation in the education sector, adding that those policies would be instituted for recruitment management, promotion and replacement of teachers; and also for developing basic education curriculum framework and developing and validating syllabuses for all subjects.
“The curriculum comprised of five C’s including creativity; critical thinking; comprehension; competitional thinking and civic education. I believe in the next two years and definitely in ten years the school system would be in a completely an improved stage in the country,” Dr. Sengeh said.
He added that his ministry has also included early childhood learning into the educational system in a bid to capacitate young children educationally.
He noted that based on his background, they have embarked on data collection which would ensure effective and informed data for decision making to enhance educational development.
By George M.O.Williams
24/11/2020. ISSUE NO: 7956