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President’s Recovery Priorities launches nationwide school building programme...

More Classrooms To Be Constructed

(Freetown Sierra Leone, 14 October2016) Sierra Leone’s school pupils will have an increased chance of succeeding in their studies, as the President’s Recovery Priorities’ nationwide £3.9 million school building programme gets underway on October 17, 2016. The initiative, which will deliver an additional 225 new classrooms across the country, aims to create a better learning environment for pupils by reducing severe overcrowding in schools.
Under the leadership of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST)UK Aid is providing £3.9 million to build 225 new classrooms. The classrooms will be built by a consortium led by World Vision with Street Child Sierra Leone and Catholic Relief Services (CRS). MEST held a launch event for the initiative at the Madonna Roman Catholic Primary School, in Bo. This school benefited from one of 168 new classrooms earlier constructed, funded by UK Aid as part of the Recovery Process. The additional 225 new classrooms, will mean that a total of 393 new classrooms will be built by June 2017 as part of the President’s Recovery Priorities focus on improving education for Sierra Leone’s children.
Speaking at the launch, Sally Taylor, the Head of UK Aid in Sierra Leone said ‘UK Aid has a long-standing commitment to education in Sierra Leone. It is great to be visiting one of the 168 classrooms, built with UK Aid support, in the first phase of the recovery. Today I am delighted to announce our continued partnership with MEST to build a further 225 classrooms nationwide. Providing children with a decent education helps us to support the girls and boys who will build Sierra Leone’s future’
With as many as 100 pupils in some classes, overcrowding in schools has been identified as a significant problem for Sierra Leone’s schoolchildren. Dr Christian Thorpe, Deputy Minister of Education and sector co-ordinator for the President’s Recovery Priorities, says that crowded classrooms make it difficult for pupils to concentrate on their lessons, and inevitably limit the amount of time teachers can spend providing learning support.
“The noise level increases the more students are packed into a classroom, which can affect students’ ability to learn or work. Furthermore, teachers must constantly struggle simply to maintain order,” she says. “As well as making it difficult for children to learn, overcrowded classrooms can be a health hazard as the Ebola epidemic highlighted. With Ebola spreading through direct contact with bodily fluids, overcrowded schools, often with poor or no proper hygiene facilities posed a high risk to children.”
As a consequence, improving water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in schools is an important component of the school improvement drive and the schools receiving new classrooms will also receive new or rehabilitated WASH facilities where necessary.
James Chifwelu, National Director, World Vision Sierra Leone is quoted as saying: ‘’World Vision will continue to be partners with the Government of Sierra Leone and UK Aid and other like-minded agencies with a focus on improving the lives of children. One of the President’s recovery priorities is in the area of education. Education is also a key component in World Vision’s country strategy for developing communities in Sierra Leone. World Vision believes children are a national asset and are worth investing in.’’
The school building programme is one of a series of President’s Recovery Priorities’ initiatives aimed at extending access to better quality education for Sierra Leone’s young people. Other initiatives being carried out to improve Sierra Leone’s schools, include reducing the number of unapproved schools, and developing lesson plans in core subjects and training teachers in their use.
Over the next 5 years UK Aid will provide £6.2 million to support MEST to improve Education in Sierra Leone. This will enable 1.4 million children to get a better education, 150,000 girls to remain in secondary school and an additional 14,000 to pass their final exams in Maths and English. The UK is committed to supporting the children of Sierra Leone to get a decent education. (Source: Political, Press & Public Affairs Officer, British High Commission)

Minister And Deputy Minister At Each Other’s Throat…

Social Welfare Goes Beyond Redemption!

- ACC Called Upon To Investigate Missing Millions


They came to office on the back of a dispute between Moijueh Kai Kai and Mustapha Bai Attila – the climax of which went viral on social media and was taken over by the mainstream media. Two females replaced two males. Now Sylvia Blyden and Neneh Turay have surpassed their predecessors in public spat between Minister and Deputy Minister respectively.
Never in the history of governance in Sierra Leone has a ministry displayed such malevolence of accusations and counter-accusations about who has misused how much in millions at a time when the country is going through some somber moments.
Certainly now, the centre can no longer hold in the Ministry of Social Welfare. Things have fallen apart. It has come to a complete standstill except for the vilification and opprobrium being emitted from there on a daily basis. Even donor partners are brought into the mess!
If there’s a ministry run on social media, don’t look anywhere else - with details of emails, pages, letters, and government documents being churned out day in day out. Thus the nickname Ministry of Social Warfare!
Give us a classic example of letting the womenfolk down. How else can a golden opportunity be squandered when two young women supposedly belonging to the same political party cannot find a common ground to justify why women should be given governance responsibility? And this is the only Ministry that has both Minister and Deputy as women! To many, this is a blown-away chance that would make President Buhari of Nigeria find further excuse to tell his wife off.
It is no longer a secret that the end is near. It is time for a new beginning at the Ministry of Social Welfare. The mudslinging, shenanigans and skullduggery have played their roles enough; and now the Anti Corruption Commission may step in to investigate ‘missing’ millions disbursed to the Minister and Deputy Minister separately. The public would know who is who when the dust settles.
But clearly, the Ministry of Social Welfare, in its present form, has gone beyond redemption!