The ‘Athens’ of West Africa

A chatty politician recently raised eyebrows within Sierra Leone`s academic community suggesting that the “archaic” curriculum of the university system be overhauled to match the country`s current development needs.

That came on the backdrop of widespread unease over what experts have attested to as a fall in standard of education in the country fondly referred to as the ‘Athens of West Africa’ for the pivotal role it played in providing education, through its iconic Forah Bay College (FBC), when Western style college education was available nowhere else in West Africa.

Founded in 1827 as a missionary institution, FBC boasts of a list of eminent products, including the current Sierra Leone president, and as far as in Ghana, Nigeria and Gambia.

Before Gambia founded its first university in 1997, FBC was the Mecca for its outstanding high school graduates.

Today, the college is the principal among three constituent colleges of the amalgamated University of Sierra Leone, and it is the preference for most young Sierra Leoneans dreaming of university education. This is why the withering effect of this citadel of learning has become a stain on the conscience of a proud nation.

Every explanation points to a flawed elementary education system.

“There is no cogent policy for pre or early childhood care education and development,” says Joseph Archi Cobinah, Coordinator, Education For All Sierra Leone Coalition (EFA-SL).

New education system

On this premise, a new education system was introduced at the beginning of the academic year, last month. It marked Sierra Leone`s departure from the so-called 6334 system which had been in practice in all [English speaking] West African Examinations Council (WAEC) member countries, to the 6344 system.

Essentially, one year is added to secondary education so that for the first time ever in peace period, next year, Sierra Leone won`t be officially represented at the senior school level of the annual regional examination.

Between 2002 and 2007, the government implemented viable education policies which yielded widely praised results.

However, some of those got abandoned or revisited when the government changed hands.

The result is evidently a failure.

In 2009, President Ernest Bai Koroma commissioned an inquiry in response to the worst performance in external examinations the previous year.

Numerous factors were identified, but mostly bad government policies got the larger share of the blame.

Politics

When Sierra Leone earned its ‘Athens of West Africa’ label, its education system, like that of the rest of the WAEC member countries [except Liberia], was modelled on that of their British colonial master.

In the early 90s, all five member countries [Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone] adopted the 6334 system. The idea was to migrate from a strictly formal and academic based system to one blending some informal aspect, so that dropouts could get the opportunity to learn key skills to be self reliant and self-sustainable.

“Clearly it failed in Sierra Leone,” said Mr Cobinah.

And the reasons are obvious.

Government, the activist said, failed to put the rights policies in place.

Sierra Leone has about 70 percent primary school enrolment. But children face extremely poor classroom conditions and serious deficiencies in teaching and learning resources.

Also, about 40 percent of the country`s teachers are unqualified or inadequately trained.

The problem is compounded by double shift schooling adopted to offset classroom inadequacies and high teacher-pupil ratio.

The cumulative effect of all these is poor performance of students, noted Cobinah, a former teacher himself who now spends his time propagating for viable education policies.

While the government may seem right in seeking to rectify this perennial problem from ‘the source’, there remains genuine concern for the prevailing chaos at the higher education level.

The University of Sierra Leone is more or less a political landmine. Strikes and protests are the order of the day. And the learning process is the major casualty.

Officials have tied frequent unrests to occultism, a phenomenon that has become a major concern for government.

But there are countless reasons to believe it has more to do with management flaws than anything else.

Until recently, entry procedures into the University of Sierra Leone used to be among the most stringent in the region.

But a recent finding by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) has confirmed what has been an open secret - rampant examination malpractice, result falsification, illegal intakes, and awards of false degrees.

“There are many with university documents that do not deserve them because they could not live up to expectation,” said Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, head of ACC.

The Systems review report on the University of Sierra Leone, which was carried out by his commission and presented to the authorities last week, exposed massive anomalies in the country`s university system which, if not addressed, could span dire consequences for the education sector.

“They [university students] cannot even pass an interview if they are to be employed in any organisation. Even if they mistakenly pass an interview, they cannot prove it if they are employed,” Kamara said.

Because of the so-called ‘academic independence’, the government feels constrained to act.

Yet the implications are obvious for a country which still relies on foreign experts for critical expertise as a result of a devastating civil war.

Recently, in the heat of a string of disturbances, a normally restrained President Koroma couldn’t hide his feelings about the situation at the university.

“If government should continue to put its hard earned resources at the disposal of any of its higher institutions the latter must, in addition to being more innovative, show transparency in the conduct of its affairs,” he said.

But the ineffectiveness of the Education ministry has also largely contributed to the failing system.

This shift to a new education system at the primary level is in line with recommendations of the 2009 inquiries, which have also seen budgetary allocation for the sector upped by more than half to 23 percent in 2013.

This places Sierra Leone above the 20% margin agreed by governments.

But, Mr Cobinah insists, that hardly guarantees any hope.

Policy makers, he said, failed to address the causes of the problem, and instead paid attention to the symptoms.

Other critics wonder how an addition of just one year to secondary education can do the magic.

Reports of missing school funds, the existence of ghost schools and teachers are common. And all this happen with reports that pupils sit on stones and blocks in to learn, while in university students stand to take lectures.

“Even if government should allocate 40 percent to the education sector, if they fail to plug the leakages and track the resources allocated it would never reach the targeted beneficiaries. And that way we will always be on the drawing board,” he said.

An edited version of this article was first published on www.africareview.com.