By Desmond Jones – August 1st 2019
The Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Alpha Timbo, and the Sierra Leone Ambassador to the Republic of Guinea, Ambassador Alimamy Bangura, are scheduled to meet with authorities of Sierra Leonean schools in Guinea, at the Sierra Leone Embassy in Conakry, on Thursday 1 August 2019.
Speaking to this medium, the National Coordinator for the Free Education Secretariat in the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Mr. Amara Sowa, said the meeting will be a platform where the minister and other stakeholders in the establishment of the West Africa Examinations Council Centre in Guinea for Sierra Leonean pupils, will have a retrospective look into the conduct of the first National Primary School Examination and Basic Education Certificate Examination in the Guinean capital- Conakry.
He said in this meeting, challenges facing the process of making this milestone will be discussed, with a view to identifying possible solutions.
He assured that the solutions identified will prevent these challenges from showing up in examinations that will be conducted in the centres in subsequent.
The Free Education Coordinator said beyond alleviating the constraints pupils used to face in writing public examinations conducted by WAEC in Sierra Leone, the Ministry desires to harmonize the quality standards of all Sierra Leonean schools in the neighbouring country.
This, Mr. Sowa said, is in line with the vision of the Sierra Leonean Ambassador to Guinea, Alimamy Bangura; in order to resonate with the dream of His Excellency the President, Julius Maada Bio for Human Resource Capital Development to citizens living in Guinea.
According to Ambassador Bangura, when he was appointed, the establishment of an Examination Centre for Sierra Leoneans was one of his key priority areas.
Speaking further, the Ambassador stressed that he knows the exploitation Sierra Leoneans in Guinea are going through in the hands of school authorities, to get their children to travel all the way to Sierra Leone to sit to public examinations such as the National Primary School Examination, the Basic Education Certificate Examination and the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination, and as a result, he said he is proud that he has been able to relieve his people from that stress.
He thanked the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education for the collaboration which has led to the achievement of the milestone.
He said the manner in which his embassy officials and those of the Ministry took seriously the collaboration speaks volume of how valuable the New Direction administration takes the delivery of quality education.
A critical player in the Ministry’s team for the establishment of the Examination Centre in Guinea is the Chief Education Officer of the Ministry Alhaji Dr. Mohamed Kamara. Speaking to this medium, Dr. Kamara said the establishment of a WAEC centre in Guinea is a big plus for Sierra Leone in the sub-region.
He said Sierra Leone is currently trying to do what other countries of the WAEC family are doing. He said Nigeria has been able to conduct examination for Benin and Guinea Bissau, while Ghana is conducting examination for Ivory Coast and Togo.
