The government of Sierra Leone has launched a public awareness campaign to inform people about its free education program due to start this September. More than two million primary and secondary school children will be exempt from paying fees. The bad aspect is that subsidies for university students will be scrapped.
As the Education Ministry spokesman, Brima Turay, put it, “This is a very laudable but ambitious national program. For the first time in the history of education in Sierra Leone, a political administration is pronouncing free quality education for kids from pre-primary school, right to senior secondary school.”
Turay makes no secret of the government’s desire to rebuild its reputation as the Athens of West Africa. Between 1827 and 1948, Sierra Leone was the only country that had an institution of higher learning in sub-Saharan Africa. Its performance dropped after the civil war of 1991-2002 and worsened further because of the Ebola outbreak.
But President Julius Bio, who is eager to reverse the trend, promised to introduce free quality education during his election campaign and reaffirmed that commitment recently, promising to donate three months of his own salary to the cause.
But opposition politicians are skeptical. They wonder where the 39 billion leone (2.5 million euros) estimated for core text books, uniforms, free school meals program and pay rise for teachers, will come from. The Director of the NGO Heal Sierra Leone, Joseph Sanoh, expatiated, “You’re talking about free education but some schools will ask students to pay for a result, maintenance … for different things. In fact, some schools sell uniforms, text books that they will charge the students to undermine the free education”.
