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We are a registered charitable Trust that promotes education among the under-privileged young people of Sierra Leone. The Trust was established in 1994 following a university expedition by two of the founder members, and now consists of six voluntary workers in the UK and twenty salaried staff, nine volunteer junior staff and two international volunteers in Sierra Leone.
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We believe that access to education promotes dignity and empowerment. Through vocational and academic learning it is possible to achieve improvements in personal, social and economic well-being. Real democracy is not possible without an educated, informed and thinking population. We encourage our students to become good Christians and honest citizens, able to earn a living wage.
The Political Situation in Sierra LeoneThis ex-British colony ranks as the poorest country with data in the world [HDI 2007/8], despite a rich mineral reserve of diamonds. The Gross Domestic Product per capita is just $806 [USA $43,444, UK $37,328, Ghana $3,141], one in three babies die before they reach five years; life expectancy is 41.8 years; and the adult literacy rate is one of the lowest in the world at 34.8% [UNDP 2007/8], 70% of the population live below the poverty line [CIA fact book 2008]. In addition the country has recently emerged from ten years of brutal civil war, which captured the attention of the international community due to the extent of human rights abuses employed by all sides (the use of child soldiers and amputation as a means of combat have been widespread). A high proportion of the population was killed and many of the survivors are only now returning to their places of origin. Many more have got stuck in Freetown, where they fled during the war. They have no means to return, nothing to return with or to and live on the edge of society in the capital, accessing few or no facilities.
All the warring factions signed a peace accord in July 1999; a West African peacekeeping agency (ECOMOG) initially helped to maintain peace, and more recently the United Nations deployed a large peacekeeping force. However, the peace accord was breached in May 2000 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) took a group of UN peacekeepers hostage and mounted an unsuccessful attack on Freetown. The British Army was deployed and has maintained a presence to date in order to enforce the conditions of the accord. The international community has overseen a gradual cessation of all fighting, and facilitated a peace declaration by a democratically elected government in 2001. There has been no serious threat to the security of Freetown for the past seven years. There have been two successful and peaceful elections with relatively few claims of manipulation of the voting. In the summer of 2007 there were peaceful elections and, maybe more significantly, a peaceful handover of power to the opposition party.
Since the war ended, free primary schooling has been made available by the government. This means that enrolment has increased significantly, but the number of teachers has not increased. Although some teaching and learning materials have been made available, they are far from sufficient. Many pupils leave primary school unable to read or write a correct sentence. Thus the quantity of education has increased but the quality has not.
There is no state provision for free secondary education. As a result the majority of children, including the large number of orphans, children separated from their parents and ex-combatants, have no hope of schooling after primary school. EducAid runs the only free secondary schools in the country.
EducAid Schools
Miriam Mason-Sesay, a friend of EducAid, left her job as head of modern languages at a school in South London and moved to Freetown to open a Junior Secondary School in September 2000. Initially we rented a house and classes took place under the tree or on the back veranda.
In 2005 we started our own building and we now have well over 500 young people attending daily in a three-storey building built on Miriam’s mother-in-law’s vegetable patch.
The junior secondary level of education corresponds to UK Key Stage 3, and is assessed by a national exam, Basic Education Certificate Exam (BECE). We initially enrolled 20 young people, 6 of who were ready to sit the exam at the end of the first year. All passed, which exceeded the national pass rate of 42%, and were able to progress to senior secondary schools in Freetown.
Since then, the numbers have grown and grown but it has continued to be our priority to maintain the highest standards of performance in terms of public exam performance as well as conduct, community service and citizenship.
Year |
No of students entered |
No of students passed |
No of students absent / ill |
% of students passed |
2007 |
51 |
50 |
1 |
98 |
2006 |
72 |
71 |
1 |
99 |
2005 |
69 |
66 |
2 |
96 |
2004 |
46 |
43 |
2 |
93 |
2003 |
30 |
30 |
0 |
100 |
In September 2002 EducAid started a senior secondary department. This equates approximately to Key Stage 4 in the UK plus an extra year. It is assessed with the West African Senior Secondary School Examination [WASSCE] which is also the qualification for tertiary education. Before we transferred to the new building, WASSCE classes took place in the garage!
WASSCE |
|
|
|
|
Year |
No of students entered |
No of students passed |
No of students absent / ill |
% of students passed |
2007 |
26 |
26 |
0 |
100 |
2006 |
64 |
60 |
1 |
90 |
2005 |
31 |
30 |
1 |
97 |
2004 |
No SSS |
Students |
Before |
2005 |
In September 2002 EducAid opened another Junior Secondary School in Ropolon, a small village 3 hours’ drive from Freetown. We assisted the community to cement plaster the mud block building and get it ready for use as a school. Since starting the school, we have enabled the village to get a well and latrines dug as well. Following construction of premises, and due to difficulties negotiating inter-community politics, we were forced to relocate to a nearby village named Rolal. The Ropolon students moved with the school and we now have 250 students with a waiting list at the new site.
Initially we were in an unfinished house that was lent to EducAid by the community and within 2 years we had put up our own building: staff and students worked very hard with some local contractors to complete the work.
In January 2004 we opened a third Junior Secondary School in Magbeni, a village halfway between the first two schools. We helped the village community with the materials needed to renovate an old school building and re-roof it, and the community set to and did the work.
The pupils in all three schools are young people whose lives have been seriously affected by the war. They are aged between 13 and 30 and have been out of school for between 1 and 13 years. The two village schools are in areas that were seriously disrupted during the war. In both areas the nearest secondary schools are several miles away, so most young people would normally drop out after primary school (if they are fortunate enough to make it that far).
During 2001 the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Education assessed EducAid’s Freetown school. Their report was highly favorable and the Junior Secondary School was granted status as an examination centre. A couple of years later, after something of a struggle, we were given permission to operate as a WASSCE centre too, and finally, in December 2007, we were given the same permission for the up-country schools.
Funding
EducAid is funded entirely by individuals, churches, schools and foundations. Miriam does a 6-monthly tour of our various donor schools and churches, raising awareness, running assemblies and retreats.
All donations from UK taxpayers are eligible under the UK Government’s Gift Aid scheme and EducAid receives an additional 28p from the Government for each £1 donated in this way. The Trustees pay for all our UK overheads personally to ensure that other donations can be used for direct programme costs. Click here for the finance summary.
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