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Concord Times (Freetown)

Sierra Leone: After Noon Shift Schooling Is A Sham

PEL Koroma

12 December 2008

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opinion

Freetown — The introduction of free education for primary education was a laudable move in tackling illiteracy in the country. Development of any nation depends on the human resource base. Education should be a priority for any government that sincerely intends ameliorating the social and economic demise of a nation. Suffice to say that education is a social right; its anticipated purposes should be fully adhered to. The students especially in the city are finding after- noon schooling very inconvenient which civil society think is responsible for their poor performance in public examinations.

It is disheartening to know that even primary school pupils now have after-noon shifts. Parents are left with no alternative but to cope with the unfortunate situation their young children are going through. What do people expect from a tired 8 years old after spending his or her morning hours on extra curriculum activities, only to surface for school after midday? A case in question is one Sabah Obama Kamara who stays with his grandfather in town. Sabeh is a class 4 pupil and is in the after-noon shift. Sabeh's grandfather leaves the house at 8 in the morning and will not return until 8 in the night. Grandpa gives Sabeh Le 2,000 every morning for his lunch and he is expected to walk his way to school. Being that Sabeh is left to himself in the morning to prepare himself for the After-noon shift, Sabeh has taken to the habit of going to the foot ball field as early as 9 in the morning. Sabeh will spend all day at the foot ball field only to return in

the evening without stepping his feet in school. Sabeh's illiterate grandfather did not discover his grandsons' mischief until the end of the term when Sabeh could not bring report card home.

Sabeh's grandfather became infuriated because had Sabeh been part of the morning session, he would have been able to monitor the little boy by even dropping him in school in the morning before going for work. Sabeh wasted all the term at the foot ball field. The problem will exacerbate especially with single parents who are employed and will not over see their young children leave for school in the after-noon.

Those after- noon JSS and SSS students who have to traverse miles to school grapple with the transportation wahala as they often choke themselves in filthy poda podas and traffic hold up. Sadly, most students are always late for school because of the poor transportation system in the country. Some after- noon students will not return to their homes until late in the night. By the time they are home, they will be too tired to read their books.

Some female students get their misfortune as a result of the oddness in time for schooling. Some refuse to go to school and instead choose to hang out with friends that may mislead them. For the boys, they are tempted to visit cinema halls in the after -noon instead of going to school. Most parents are unhappy with after-noon shifts because it gives them little command over the children as they are left at home to manage their own lives. Some argue that it would be easier to monitor students in the morning shift than those in the after-noon shift. This after-noon shift in most schools especially the boys schools have turned out to be a convergence of unscrupulous students who imbibe others because of the less attention they receive from their teachers in the after-noon shift.

But why is the government not focusing on education? APC has not made education its priority. Instead they have decided to ignore the things that should come first for issues that could only be surmounted with the level of literacy the nation develops. Education should be a sine qua non for any serious government in Africa. Millions of US $ have been used to provide electricity for the senior citizens, ignoring the plight of students who are the future of the country. Until human resource is developed, the nation should not be talking of development. The push for energy availability appears ridiculous when we have not thought it wise to improve on the standard of education.

The last SLPP government prioritized education which witnessed the soaring of students in both primary and secondary schools across the country. Frantic efforts were made and robust regulations were implemented. The problems attached to these soaring should be the concern of the government but the government has plunged all its energy on the provision of electricity, forgetting the fact that a corporation like NPA would only strive in a literate society where people have the understanding that they should pay for utilities. Government should have tried to promote education first in the country before any other agenda; else all efforts aimed at development will surely go down the drains.

The school structures in the country can no longer accommodate the number of students admitted in schools. Government needs to build more infrastructures for schooling rather than wasting resources on energy when the nation could hardly boast of 100 proper engineers to man the energy sector. Foreign expatriates will continue eating the donors' money from us because we have refused to build the capacity of our own people. Schools in the country should be able to accommodate our students for the morning shift but there are not enough buildings to house the kids. Some attend makeshift schools with less learning materials. The government has less concern for the country's tomorrow.

Minister Minkailu Bah's administration has heralded confusion in the academic sector. One would sincerely wonder what actually the ministers' agenda is. He has failed to get over the top layer of the problems of education. He has inflicted insecurity in the teachers by constantly trying to embarrass them for political reasons. He has not thought of Sierra Leone generally. The schools have inadequate teachers and some are virtually inefficient and unpatriotic. Bah should have braced himself with the training of more teachers to meet with the challenges of the schools of today. Few teachers in the country appreciate their jobs. Some teachers pay less attention to their normal teaching periods; instead, much energy is reserved for their private classes. This spell out why the increase of private schools in the country. People have lost confidence in the government sponsored schools. Generally, the people are too poor to meet with the cost of

these expensive private schools.

Minkailu Bah has decided to just humiliate his colleagues by vague accusations instead of concentrating on the deplorable situation of education in the country. He has disappointed a lot people who were wishing for a return to our old glory of being the Athens of West Africa.

Minister should have known by now that schools need infrastructure with the increase of the nation's population and its demand for more committed and trained teachers.

Yet, millions of US $ has been pumped into providing electricity for Freetown when the children that are suppose to be our tomorrow languish in schools for lack of proper care from their government. No wonder the human index always see the country at the bottom. No nation is measured according to the number of towns that can be lighted at night but people will agree with me that a nation's status is assessed based on the human resource. The country needs more engineers to carry out the dream of having electricity all over the country instead of depending on foreign experts. In fact the more literate people the nation provide, the easier it would be for people to accept that they should pay for utilities. How will this be possible when our future children are always neglected? With out educating our people, the nation will never progress. It should be a sine qua non for any serious government to put education first in our impoverished nation.

Tertiary institutions are not running as if we want a better tomorrow. A foreign lecturer opined yesterday that she has now got the point why education is substandard in the country. Currently, FBC is on strike and this is their fourth strike just in the first semester. The foreign lecturer said that it is disgusting that government is paying little attention to education. The people are toying with the future of the nation.

It would be fine for APC to redirect their development programme towards education; else all their efforts will surely go in vain. The shabbiness of education is more acute in the rural areas where inexperienced teachers are employed who in turn frustrate our own Einstein's or Jeffrey Saxes right from the beginning. It is sad for the nation in that some schools are over populated and parents buy their own desk and chairs for their children.

Civil society seem astonished over the selfishness manifested in the behavior of our law makers by requesting for fabulous pays, little thinking that students do not have enough class rooms, enough learning materials let alone hire better qualified teachers. Do people really understand what has happened to this nation? Senior citizens have spent their lives but have little sympathy for the nation. If things remain as they are, the nation will never grow. Materialism has denied people facing the reality of the situation of the country. People should be making sacrifices for nation building. Parliamentarians should sacrifice their demands for vehicles and big pays so that the nation will give more premium to education. All monies for the vehicles should be diverted to have more buildings that will host our school going children.

I hope my younger brothers and sisters in the academic struggle will gain sympathy from the APC government. School going children should be afforded free transportation to school, exposed to quality learning materials, science teachers given special allowances as a means of encouraging science and technology, and above all, cut down on the roaming of students on the streets. Communities no longer care for their own which could be cited as a factor for the increase of hooliganism in schools. It is very pertinent for the government to treat education first before any other development agenda.

With accessible and quality education, health hazards would subside, while agriculture and trade will flourish.

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