By Amin Kef Sesay
The SLPP Government headed by President Julius Maada Bio has put premium on human capital development and one of its flagship programmes is the rolling out of the Free Quality Education initiative which is targeting both primary and secondary pupils attending public schools. The introduction of the programme was warmly welcomed by many because prior to this time educational expenses were a burden on most parents and invariably the number of school drop outs was very high.
Since the Free Quality Education scheme commenced we witnessed a sharp increase in the enrolment of children in public schools and the number still keeps on increasing especially in those places where it is complemented by the school feeding programme.
Indeed, the rolling out of the initiative is not all that smooth ride as there are teething challenges that must be overcome to ensure that its impact is positively felt and seen. One of these challenges is inadequate classroom spaces to accommodate the growing number of pupils that are enrolled in schools.
In order to deal with some of these challenges the SLPP led Government made provision for 21 percent in the national budget for the implementation of the free education programme. However, it has been realized that such could not be adequate to fund the scheme which makes it imperative to source funding from donor partners.
Against such a backdrop, the leading betting company in the country, Mercury International Company Sierra Leone Limited last year pledged 1.5 million dollars toward the construction of 90 classrooms in identified priority areas for four years. After making that pledge the company has been constantly engaging the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education to develop the project and map out the designs for modern-day school infrastructure. Ultimately, Mercury has awarded of the first contract to Ideas Limited for the construction of a Government Secondary School in Port Loko District, North West Region.
The building will comprise 6 classroom blocks, science laboratories, principal and staff offices, water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, and a playground for pupils.
On the 11th March 2020 the company signed the contract with Ideas Limited and during the process Mercury International Managing Director, Martin Michael, said the building will cost a little over 5 billion Leones and it will be completed before the start of the 2020/2021 academic year. He said Ideas Limited is an indigenous company with a good track record of service delivery.
He said: “…we are finally ready to sign the first contract for the construction of the first all-girls school in Port Loko.”
Martin said Port Loko was chosen because they want to actualize the promise President Bio made to the people in the district. Besides, the Northern Region is estimated to have the highest illiterate population in Sierra Leone. Statistical analyses of the 2015 Population and Housing Census show that the percentage of illiterate females far exceeds that of males across all regions.
It is expected that when the project is completed it will boost the Free Quality Education flagship programme, enhance literacy outcomes and contribute to achieving gender parity in education.
