The Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE), Ministry of Technical and Higher Education (MTHE) and Development Partners have held a one-day workshop seminar to validate and look at the finalization document of the Education Sector Plan (ESP) for 2022 to 2026. The workshop was held on Wednesday 25 May at the Bintumani Hotel in Freetown.
Speaking during the finalization exercise, the Minister of MBSSE, Dr. David Moinina Sengeh, said the ESP document is guided by the mission and vision of the Ministry, adding that the vision said “all learners in Sierra Leone will have equal opportunity to access quality basic, secondary, technical, vocational and higher education that will able them to participate in public life, contribute to the national and global economy and fulfill their potential. This is the vision that is common to both Ministries” he said.
The MBSSE Minister outlined that there were four guiding principles of MBSSE learning that were developed a couple of years ago. He continued that the two Ministries have been in the process for the past two years, revealing that these were; quality teaching and learning, Universal Access, radical inclusion and comprehensive safety. He said the current ESP document was extended by the year 2018, 2019 to 2020.
“If you look at these guiding principles, you can squarely place them in the actual track and then the components in the focus areas of ESP around governance, financing are all related. The reason we have these presentations, all these things we are doing are all linked, “ he explained.
Giving the overview of the workshop, the Consultant and Advisor on Education, Dr. Albert Dupiny explained that the workshop was to finalize the education sector plan. He said they have made a plan for education that covers both the MBSSE and the MTHE, while informing that they were working on a plan that would go for 2022 to 2026 that will give direction to education in Sierra Leone.
“This workshop is to guide what is happening in all sectors of education and what is also important is that is going to be the source of the part that education will take and therefore, it involves all stakeholders in education. This workshop is the one that is coming from a very long process. The process has taking over a year, we took a year or so to do what we call an educational analysis to diagnose the issue and challenge faced by education and suggest ways in which it can be addressed” he said.
Charles Mambu, Chairman, Civil Society Consortium on Education (CSOE), said the work was very important because what they were doing was to finalize the ESP which dealt with the human capital development for the next five years 2022 to 2026, emphasizing that it was extremely important because after series of consultative meetings with every stakeholders from the grassroots to the higher level, and in view of the high-standard of the international communities were holding Sierra Leone as one of the best examples of implementing in education that is not restricted to one particular persons of group.
“Education that is free, the free quality education, education where pregnant girls under the radical inclusive policy are now allowed to go to school, education where the government is spending 22% of its national budget to ensure that the future leaders of this country are to task with the right ability and the nation at large. So finalizing the ESP 2022 to 2026 which we are now doing today for us, working on human capital development I think we are extremely pleased with the input that has been done” he expressed.
One of the lead writers of the ESP Document, Vice Chancellor of the Ernest Bai Koroma University of Science and Technology, Professor Edie Momoh, said they have been engaging since 2022 trying to put together a document that will represent Sierra Leone in terms of education in the country. He continued that they have realized that before this time there had been only one ministry of education covering both Basic and Higher Education and that with the advent of the new administration of the President, the split of the two sectors which is the Basic Education and the Higher and Tertiary Education.
He pointed that out they were trying to put together a plan that would represent all the sectors of both Basic and Technical Education, including non-former and technical education, they had to come together with what they started, sometimes trying to engage people, all stakeholders to putting their thoughts together.
By Mohamed Amara Gando
