A big question mark exists for the success of the Free Quality Education in Sierra Leone as the recently published statistics of external examinations points out.
The question mark is showcased by endless streams of former West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) candidates storming internet cafés across the country to check for their results.
Exuberance and zest is written on their faces as they arrived at the centers.
But gloom and despair overshadowed their faces as they exit. The WASSCE results they went to look for are not worth the search. They are nothing to write home about.
The 2018-2019 WASSCE results represent the biggest academic disasters in the country today.
Among those former WASSCE candidates streaming into the cafés for their WASSCE results, was Abdul Kamara, a former pupil of the Richard Allen Secondary School in the east of Freetown.
Kamara was in the Arts stream of the said secondary school. He entered eight subjects for the WASSCE and came out from the café after several minutes.
He was despondent as the scores are terrible. In a desperate mood, Kamara told Nightwatch that he never expected such terrible WASSCE results as he studied very hard with the hope of coming out with flying colours.
“When I was preparing for the WASSCE exams, I studied very hard. I spent day and night reading my notes just to get good grades.
But what I have just seen is the reverse,” Kamara explained. Considering the result he got, he was indecisive in respect of what to do next. He is worried and pensive.
His WASSCE results cannot secure him a place at the University. “I have seen many of my colleagues repeatedly taking WASSCE exams without getting the requirements they need to venture into the University.
As for me, I have no hope of getting the scores that would take me to the university,” he said.
Not too long, another candidate, Isatu Kanu also came to the café to check for her WASSCE result. Out of the eight subjects she entered, she got only two credit passes in Economics and Business Management.
Isatu told Nightwatch that her result was terrible since it could not take her to even a teacher training college, let alone university.
“Entering directly to a University has been my hope for quite a while, but the result can’t take me there. It is just bad for me as my hope has been dashed,” she said.
Isatu’s biggest headache for now is how she would turn the sad situation to her favour.
She further told Nightwatch that her only hope was to enroll for the private WASSCE to remedy the situation.
The two candidates, Abdul and Isatu, epitomize thousands of former WASSCE candidates who are waiting for an unprecedented poor performance at this year’s WASSCE.
This year’s results manifest themselves as the worst ever recorded in Sierra Leone’s academic history.
Statistics released indicate over 95% failure country-wide.
Official figures from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the body responsible for the supervision of public exams in the country, indicated that that only (3.4%) secured university requirements.
Put in percentages, 96.6% out of 100% failed to secure entry requirements.
As secondary schools are caught up in this horrific situation, primary schools are faced with similar, painful circumstances.
Quite recently, Sierra Leone also witnessed the worst National Primary School Examination (NPSE) results in the country, as over 100 primary schools did not produce scores that would take the pupils to secondary schools.
These trends indicate that pupils in primary and secondary schools have failed to capitalize on the free quality education provided by the state.
It can be expressed without any fear of contradiction that under the Free Quality Education Scheme, parents do not pay school charges, admission fees or other charges to get their pupils to school.
It was the expectation that such a move by the state would have led to the improvement in the performance of pupils than ever before.
As the terrible state continues, questions are being asked by the public trying to enquire about what are the causative factors for such disgraceful performance at public exams.
Answers are yet to be provided to the questions posed. Ibrahim Bangura, a teacher in one of the secondary schools at Calaba Town attempted to provide the answer.
He has served the teaching profession for close to 20 years. Bangura told Nightwatch that it would be difficult for the Free Quality Education Scheme to succeed in Sierra Leone if the problem of teacher remuneration package is not solved.
“Teachers are not paid a living wage in this country. No sound teaching and learning facilities for pupils and teachers. No good text books, no libraries and no computer facilities to aid on-line research. Above all, teachers are not motivated. How can the pupils perform under such circumstances,” Ibrahim Bangura wondered.
In addition to the aforementioned constraints, Bangura singled out the non-payment of teachers in various secondary schools in the country as an enormous challenge the country is still grappling with.
“I know dozens of teachers who have spent years in the classroom without salaries. This is a dangerous situation,” Bangura said.
The credo, coming events cast their shadows, has lent credence to the disgraceful performance in this year’s WASSCE and NPSE exams.
The shadows of the impending bad performance showcased themselves in Kono, Waterloo and in Freetown few months back.
In the eastern region district of Kono during the WASSCE exams, WAEC officials including ad hoc staff were brutally attacked and taken hostage.
Question paper rooms were broken into and exams materials destroyed.
In Waterloo, waves of skirmishes took place between WAEC officials and WASSCE candidates in one of the secondary schools used as a WAEC centre.
Police were deployed at the scene and teargas was fired to disperse the rioting WASSCE candidates.
The following days, the students allegedly caught in examination malpractice were again allowed to take the exams non-compliant candidates hung around the exams centre.
In Freetown, WAEC vehicles were seriously vandalized and the matters reported to the police for investigation.
Tertiary institutions and universities in the country share the emolument challenge akin to that of the secondary schools in the country.
Lecturers in the country’s oldest university, Fourah Bay College and other constituent colleges have gone unpaid for two months- July and August.
Annual leave allowances for lecturers have also succumbed to the same fate.
As a result, the Academic Staff Association (ASA) of the University of Sierra Leone has in a press release dated 5th September, 2019, given 21-day ultimatum to the government for their salaries and leave allowances or embark on an industrial strike action.
ASA president, Williette James said in the ‘Good-Morning-Salone’ Magazine Program that lecturers are contributing so much to society.
She urged government to have respect for them. “Government should have allowed the university to continue payment of salaries for the two succeeding months so that they could set all their records straight before they take over payment of salaries,” the ASA president advised.
The late, non-payment or payment of beggarly salaries to teachers and lecturers is perennial and almost insurmountable.
Until the state makes reasonable effort to pay the academic foot soldiers living wages and on time, free education will be there, but quality education will be absent.
This means a tragic failure of the government as the Free Quality Education is their flagship project in the governance of the state.