While we would commend the Julius Maada Bio Government for formally establishing the Free and Quality Education we should also not forget the fact that the opposition All People’s Congress had established the building blocks for the implementation of the Free and Quality Education Scheme in Sierra Leone.
The Previous Governments of Presidents Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and Ernest Bai Koroma had previously maintained some aspects of free education. This is because the various governments were paying fees for the girl child, external/public examinations and also fees for candidates in the sciences.
Primary Education was almost free and compulsory as parents were paying as low as Le10,000. The situation was also the same with the Basic and Senior Secondary Education where they were paying Le75,000 annually.
Government was also providing some textbooks at the primary level together with some other United Nations Agencies like UNICEF and some other Non-Government working in the educational sector.
President Koroma had effectively sustained the scorecard of late President Kabbah on supporting the educational system of the country. He even went as far as also declaring free health care for under-fives and pregnant mothers. He is on record of having implemented free social service (health care) while the other was partially free (education).
One would therefore not ignore the fact that President Bio has met building blocks in the implementation of the Free Quality Education and the Free Health Care Scheme even though there are challenges. Their mere existence with some commitment from our respective donors was a step that has immensely helped the Bio administration.
It is therefore disingenuous to continue to maintain that the All People’s Congress Party had nothing to boast of that this current Government could use to advance their development aspirations.