The Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, David Moinina Sengeh will on Tuesday 1st December 2020 brief Members of Parliament on the reasons for the appalling recently published West Africa Senior Secondary School (WASSCE) results. This came as a result of the numerous concerns raised by Members of Parliament during the 2021 Appropriation Act debate on the standard of education in the country.
Almost all the Members of Parliament that have contributed on the debate in one way or the other raised concerns on the just announced WASSCE result that accounted for about 95 percent failure with about 4.5 percent pass rate for university entry. According to the Chairman of the Energy Committee in Parliament, Hon Kekura Vandi, since the SLPP came into office in 2018 they have employed a total of 7,897 Teachers with about 2,770 promoted and 1,388 reassessed which according to him has not been done for a very long time.
“Lack of strong foundation in education is the reason for the mass failure in public examinations,” he said, explaining that the government has stood the test of time by ensuring that there is no cheating in public exams. He assured that the School-feeding program is still ongoing across the regions as part of the government commitment towards the free quality education package, disclosing the enrolment has increased by 40 percent in Pre-Primary, 29 percent in Primary, 43 percent in JSS and 48 percent in Senior Secondary School.
According to Hon Abdul Kargbo, budgetary allocation is not the solution to the problem of education, disclosing that it is appalling for an MP to say that it is as a result of the restrictions put in place to discourage cheating that is responsible for the massive failure as there are very brilliant pupils in the various schools across the country. “Late payment of subsidies is also one of the major reasons responsible for the massive failures,” he said, disclosing that schools depending on subsidies are finding it very difficult to survive and operate under the free quality education.
The Leader of the Opposition, Hon Ibrahim Ben-Kargbo however questioned why the school feeding project is in low key, explaining that he had travelled in various regions without any sign of it in existence. He maintained that Gambia has a pass rate of close to 50 percent, Nigeria 55 percent, Ghana 50 percent while Sierra Leone is at 4.5 percent, questioning what went wrong in the educational sector, stating it is an embarrassment for all those educated in Sierra Leone.
According to Hon Rebecca Yei Kamara Constituency 029, school subsidies for schools within her constituency is nothing good to right home about, disclosing that since last academic year to date they are yet to receive their school subsidies. Hon Foday Mario Kamara said the free quality education is not free as the taxpayers’ monies are funding it, disclosing that lack of motivation for the Teachers is another burning issues affecting the performance of pupils in public examinations.
Hon Rosaline Kanu urged the government to immediately review the salaries of Teachers, disclosing that the issue is not about employing more teachers or giving out pin codes but that pin codes should go with immediate salary is they want the free quality package to succeed.
By Alhaji Manika Kamara