45 CARTA DE LAS NACIONES UNIDAS EL 26 DE JUNIO DE 19
2.1.2 ORGANIZACIÓN INTERNACIONAL DEL TRABAJO (OIT)
Education plays a key role in the achievement of developmental goals and attainment of prosperity, with strong impacts on the health and well-being of individuals and communities. Sierra Leone must continue to invest and reform the educational system, especially basic education, in the next five years, as an essential means to achieving the right development trajectory towards middle income status. A better educated labour force will meet the employment demands resulting from industrial expansion (in agriculture, mining, industry and the private sector) whilst at the same time reducing dependence on foreign experts.
Institutions at the tertiary level need restructuring, so they can meet present and anticipated future demand for high quality graduates. A good supply of well-educated graduates will also attract investment, thus creating jobs; improving product processing and value-added, reducing imports; increasing exports; and boosting foreign earnings and reserves.
In Sierra Leone, education has a strong impact on social behaviours (MICS4, 2010). It has a strong positive effect on birth control, since educated women wait significantly longer before having children; they are also more likely to adopt attitudes beneficial to their health and that of their children. Improving enrolment and increasing students’ years of effective schooling are necessary for economic competitiveness and growth, as are improved learning outcomes, in the form of increased knowledge and skills.
Since 2007, enrolments and completion rates have improved nationally, especially at post-primary level. However, many children who should be in school do not have access or are not enrolled, and this inequity increases as the education ladder is ascended. In addition many others access school much later than the official age of 6, increasing the likelihood of them dropping out before successfully completing their basic education. These problems remain even though Sierra Leone’s recurrent spending on education is better than our neighbours, and better than the average for Sub-Saharan Africa, as the chart below shows.
Figure 3: Share of Education Recurrent Spending in Total Government Recurrent Expenditures (Excl. Debt Services), Various African Low Income Countries, 2011 or latest available
Source: Pole de Dakar, UNESCO/BREDA
Table 6 shows key educational indicators – gross enrolment, intake, repetition, completion and transition rates, for all students and girls separately. The enrolment and intake ratios show total numbers enrolled as a proportion of the relevant age group; repetition shows the ratio of those who are repeating a year to the total enrolled, completion the ratio of those in the last year to those who entered at the beginning of the cycle, and transition the proportion of those in the final year of a cycle who move to the next level.
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International Comparisons in the Annex show how Sierra Leone is doing relative to its neighbours and other Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of access, completion and school life expectancy.
Table 6: School Enrolment, Intake, Repetition, Completion and Transition Rates
Rates Primary (Girls) Junior Secondary (Girls) Senior Secondary (Girls)
Gross Enrolment
122% (118%)
62% (55%)
32% (24%)
Gross Intake
121% (115%)
59% (53%)
26% (21%)
Repetition
16% (16%)
13% (14%)
13% (15%)
Gross Completion
76% (73%)
49% (41%)
26% (17%)
Transition Rate
77%
54%
Source: School Census Report Volume 1 and Draft CSR
3.3.1.1 Education Sector Challenges
The education sector faces severe challenges to respond to the needs of society and the labour market, despite the gains made in recent years:
A high number of out-of-school children of primary school age, and low access to the secondary level, especially by girls (the high primary gross intake and enrolment rates hide these out-of-school children, since they include under- and over-age children).
40% of children start grade one aged 7 or above. High repetition rates.
Low completion rates especially for girls. Low quality education at all levels.
Inadequate educational infrastructure to effectively and efficiently deliver education. Instructional hours low and not used efficiently.
Mismatch between skills supply and labour-market demands (mining, agriculture, etc.). High illiteracy rate among youths and adults.
Lack of governance and management capacity for education service delivery.
3.3.1.2 Objectives and Strategies to improve access to and quality of education
Improve education access, completion, and equity of opportunities
Government is focused on ensuring that by 2018 access to primary education will be ‘fee free’, and access to all levels of education will be greatly improved. Targeted programmes to encourage attendance by the most marginalised would have commenced alongside those designed to address access, particularly for children in the lowest wealth quintile, differently-able children, girls and young women. The achievement of MDG No. 2 is dependent on these provisions.
Make education more equitable and accessible
Providing adequate educational infrastructure to effectively and efficiently deliver education. Efforts will focus on schooling provision for un-served and/or under-served communities, as well as making educational institutions accessible to all students.
Addressing gender, geographical and socio-economic disparities in access, repetition, completion and transition as well as infrastructural needs, along with other 2010 Education White Paper recommendations not adequately addressed to date.
Making school infrastructure more gender-sensitive by providing separate sanitation facilities for boys and girls.
Re-activating a Gender Unit at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to take on necessary gender reforms.
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Establishing an equitable and transparent system for materials procurement, allocation and distribution, and fees and grants allocation and payment, especially for girls and vulnerable children.
Improving education completion rates, especially for girls
Encourage access to and participation in early childhood development, so as to help children’s cognitive development, making them more likely to benefit from and to complete school.
Ensure children start school at age 6.
Reduce repetition rates within primary school, making it more likely children complete primary education within the expected 6 years.
Providing better teachers, adequate supply of teaching/learning materials, better curriculum, better assessment and early diagnosis of weaknesses in teaching/learning. Improvements will be realized in repetition, completion and transition at all levels. Graduates from the different levels of the system would be better equipped to survive and prosper in the 21st century.
Improving teaching/learning quality education at all levels
Evidence suggests that learning outcomes of children need to improve throughout the country. Therefore, Government will do the following:
To improve the quality of teaching, the qualification, experience and competence of teachers, facilitators and lecturers will be improved, to ensure that the capacity of teaching staff in all educational institutions is commensurate with the subjects, levels, age and grades being taught.
Motivating factors will be put in place in order to ensure that able individuals are attracted to the sector, including staff quarters, scaled ‘remote area’ allowances, ‘subject’ allowances, access to loans schemes, and scholarship priority. The incentives will address the gap between teachers’ salaries in Sierra Leone and some counterparts in other Sub-Saharan African countries. Minimum standards for educational institutions are presently being formulated and will be put in place to ensure that all educational institutions (whether government, government-assisted, community or private) adhere to the same standards. Schools of excellence in specific areas/fields of learning would serve as models.
Making student learning more relevant
Government will: Establish a learning assessment framework. Reform the curriculum and examinations.
Ensure gender sensitive curricula reforms including GBV concepts, life skills and reproductive health.
Address teacher/lecturer quality including gender sensitive educational approaches. Prioritise Science, Math and Technology at all levels for both girls and boys.
Reward teaching and learning of Science, Maths and Technology, for both boys and girls. Education programmes at all levels will be better aligned to the demands of the 21st
Century and job market requirements.
Ensuring adequate school contact hours:
Ensure that instructional time is adequate, properly and fully utilised, as outlined in the 2010 Education White Paper.
Contact hours will be increased. Phase out the double shift system.
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Improving education administration
To ensure that the system is more effective, efficient and relevant to labour market needs, public-private partnerships will be promoted.
The decentralisation of basic education will deepen, with the accompanying devolution of authority.Labour market skills and TVET
The mismatch between the supply of tertiary educational skills and labour-market demands (for mining, agriculture and other priority areas) will be addressed. Clearly, the technical skills needed to meet the demands of the mining, agriculture; road building and physical infrastructure sectors are inadequate. Government will therefore revamp TVET and skills training through a new accreditation and competency framework, providing more relevant courses and programmes, new apprenticeship schemes, and greater public–private partnerships. At the same time, efforts will be made to attract women to train for technical jobs that are presently dominated by men. Alternative funding mechanisms for students in higher education, including loan schemes, would be explored, and grants targeted transparently to the most needy students.
TVET and skills training would be reformed through:
A new institutional accreditation framework to ensure that Higher and Tertiary education institutions meet national and international standards, and are competitive and responsive to the needs of the country.
A new national competency, assessment, examinations and qualifications framework.
Establishing a national apprenticeship scheme, providing incentives to girls in particular to participate.Adult literacy
Efforts to improve the literacy rate amongst adults will be intensified, through provision of adequate adult literacy and civic education programmes. Programmes will especially target women.
Strengthening education service delivery system
In the next five years, the Education Capacity Development Strategy (CDS) will be implemented. CDS covers strategies to strengthen nine areas: human resource management, teacher management, planning and coordination, decentralisation, financial capacity, communications and information- sharing, systems data and records management, monitoring and supervision of institutions, procurement and distribution of teaching and learning materials.
CDS highlights the functioning of the Teaching Service Commission, which is critical to the improvement of teacher quality, teacher retention and the well-being of the teaching profession.
Teacher training will be intensified and will become an integral part of the teacher appraisal system.
A procurement and distribution system would be put in place for teaching/learning materials at all levels of education. The system will recognize the decentralised nature of basic education, and ensure that schools are fully functional right from the start of every school year.
The under-funding of Early Childhood Care and Education, TVET and non-formal education will be addressed, with affordable programmes put in place.
Planning and the Education Management Information System will be improved.
A 30% minimum quota for women in decision-making and senior positions in the education system will be ensured.
Comprehensive monitoring of all schools nationwide will be ensured, including by the recruitment of school inspectors.
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The teachers’ code of conduct will be disseminated widely and implemented;; it will be monitored and enforced. The relevant laws pertaining to the code of conduct will be reviewed.
3.3.1.3 Tertiary Education and Technical and Vocational Education and Training
The supply of graduates and post-graduates from our tertiary institutions (technical and vocational institutes, colleges, polytechnics and universities) is not meeting the growing demand for mid-level technical and professional personnel with the requisite skills, knowledge and attitudes needed to transform Sierra Leone’s economy. Few of the needed professionals and highly skilled workers (machinists, technicians, electricians, crane operators, irrigation engineers etc.) are produced for the huge demand in the natural resources and large-scale commercial agriculture sectors. Consequently, emerging large companies import foreign labour for positions that could easily be filled by trained Sierra Leoneans. In addition, there is need for teachers, doctors, other medical personnel, and veterinary surgeons and technicians to meet both national needs and international commitments such as the MDGs.In prioritising tertiary education, Government will focus on the following
Making TVET Institutions more effective with a focus on redirecting manpower towards the growth sectors. Programmes will be restructured, courses revised, and new ones designed to provide technical tuition, knowledge and skills to supply vocations in mining, construction, agriculture, fisheries and hospitality.
Government will also ensure that the curriculums at universities are revised to meet current demand.
Public-private partnerships in education will be promoted. Employer co-funding and proactive research by universities in needs assessment and forecasting will be introduced to ensure an effective PPP strategy between Government and the private sector.
Government will improve tertiary access and quality of tertiary education outcomes by:
Ensuring equitable access and completion by addressing disparities (gender, geographical socio-economic), with transparent systems for allocating student financial aid and grants to institutions;
Encouraging reform of the curriculum and assessment; facilitating internship programs through PPP; providing research funding; and developing financing strategy to increase enrolment in critical areas.
Improving quality by strengthening the Tertiary Education Commission to perform its statutory functions, including quality assurance; improving performance, data collection and dissemination, and providing requisite funding.
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