Aiding and Educating for Life

It was quite some time before coming to Sierra Leone, that a friend sent us an article from a British newspaper featuring a school in Freetown. It had been started by Miriam, who as a young woman, in post war Sierra Leone in 2000, recognised the urgent need for access to secondary education for all, and not just those who could afford both the fees and a school uniform. And so, education to aid those who had no means to attend school, started on Miriam’s verandah. The programme is now known as EducAid.

Later on, and still in Edinburgh, we met Rebecca, a psychologist, who had spent some time in Freetown, doing some work with the post conflict Special Court. She had stayed with Miriam, and spoke enthusiastically of the work of EducAid. A year ago, Janice attended a literacy conference, and met Sean, who works at EducAid, and develops materials for the students. More recently a colleague in Edinburgh wrote to say that he had met the chair of the board of EducAid.

So we had heard about EducAid from many different people, and as Janice was preparing a course on curriculum development, a visit to EducAid was well overdue. Situated in a densely populated area of Freetown, called Lumley, it took us time to find it, although we had been sent directions. Housed in an incomplete three-storey concrete building, EducAid demonstrates a unique form of education in Sierra Leone. Unlike other forms of secondary education it is free, and the students do not wear a uniform. Its ethos is that of wholistic education, developing all aspects of what it means to be human. This is done, not through a didactic teacher dominated approach, with passive students, occasionally answering a question or copying from the board, then learning what you have copied for exam purposes. Instead, EducAid has developed hundreds of packs of materials that the students need to work through, at their own pace, following an entrance assessment of what stage they are at. The philosophy of the school is not geared towards passing exams or getting a good job, but to provide the students with critical and analytical skills to gain knowledge, and also to apply that knowledge to other aspects of life.

We arrived at EducAid in time for the teachers’ briefing, which is held every morning at 8am. All the teachers, except for Sean, were Saloneans, and their average age would have been about 25yrs. They were all former students of the school, and had some training as teachers from the school. Their role as teachers is to support, monitor and correct the work the students are doing from their packs. Speaking to Moses, who was in charge of the IT room, he said that he was a founder student at the school, when it started in 2000. He passed his WASSCE (West African Secondary School Certificate of Education), went to Fourah Bay College at the Sierra Leone University and graduated with a degree in engineering. He is now giving back to the school just a little of what it gave him, and for that he receives just a small allowance. There is strong sense of the development of dignity and personal empowerment, and in return, some of the former students feel a responsibility to enable others to have the same opportunity and become teachers. Also present at the briefing were two people working on video recording with students selected from each class, on an issue of concern to the school, that of TB, having recently lost students to the disease. Ensuring equal representation of girls and boys involved was crucial.

After the staff briefing the students came into the school. They had been waiting out in the street for the time for them to come inside. During the night, the 3 floors of the school provide a place to sleep. Of the 600 students, 200 of them are residential. The tables and chairs are neatly stacked up at night, giving floor space for sleeping. There were no signs of mattresses or bedding. Each floor is basically a large open space, and so the girls would sleep on one floor and the boys on the other two. Little space would exist between each sleeping student, but the distance to return home each day was too great. A daily meal is provided daily for all the students.
Once inside the building the students went to their registration groups, and whilst there, were asked to show their merit cards, a form of incentive for better performance and responsibility.

The school has a heavy focus on literacy, and two floors were taken up with literacy activities for the first two hours. The students sat around tables, tightly packed together, but were given the freedom to discuss what they were doing, and share ideas with each other. A number of them had books to read, to find information. We had never seen so many people eager to reading books in Sierra Leone. There was a gentle working hum, and no sign of loud boisterous noise associated with most schools. On the third floor the students were involved in clubs, such as Girls’ Power Club, Belief in Action Club, Art Club, Science Club, Exploration Club, and again packs of material for each of the topics were provided for the students to work on together, with a choices of tasks presented, such as prepare a powerpoint presentation, write a song, prepare a drama. There were texts to read, and questions to consider.

We talked to a number of the students, and all demonstrated self confidence, as well as being able to give their opinions and discuss their ideas. When ready, they will take the BECE exam (Basic Education Certificate Exam) and later the WASSCE. This is not decided by the number of years the students have been at school, but as to whether they have worked through all the units that make up the syllabus to a satisifactory level. EducAid has some of the best results in the whole of the country.

For 4 days in the previous week, we had both been involved in a strategic planning workshop for college staff. One key issue that came out a number of times was the lack of IT accessibility and knowledge by both staff and students. Through the donation of up-to-date computers from a school in London, EducAid has a well equipped IT room with wi fi, where students can do research and work on a variety of projects, including podcasts.

EducAid now has 5 schools in different locations across Sierra Leone. Although heavily dependent on donations of cash and kind in order to ensure that quality education is available to the poor, the characters that the school builds are not dependent on others, as the skills they have developed and the knowledge they have received enhance their personal, social and economic well-being. Being a student at EducAid is demanding, although free, it is not an easy option. If you are not prepared to be accountable for your work, to be challenged, and to think for yourself, then you will not succeed. But with commitment and determination each of the graduating students will make a dynamic and life enhancing contribution to the future of Sierra Leone.