By Janet A. Sesay
The Association of Language and Literacy Educators Reading Sierra Leone (TALLER Sierra Leone) and CODE Sierra Leone has organized a week workshop training for two hundred and eighty (280) teachers teaching from classes one to six.
These teachers are from different schools in the Western, Rural, Bo, Kenema and Port Loko Districts. The purpose of this training is for teachers to be more equipped in reading and writing and also for them to know the correct sounding of letters in the alphabet.
This training workshop was held at the Islamic School at Kossoh Town in Jui. The workshop which has started on Monday, 1st September will end on Friday, 5th September, 2025.
Before the commencement of the workshop, Pastor Aske Bee Gbla, the Executive Director of TALLE Reading Sierra Leone said the purpose of the training of the teachers is to be prepare well ahead of their task to teach children in their various schools well when schools reopen.
He maintained that even though there might not be enough materials for use by the teachers at school, the training workshop is also designed to teach the teachers extra skills from which they initiate additional learning templates to better teach their pupils.
Director Gbla said they earlier supplied books to the and other learning materials to the various schools, noting that the books supplied were produced locally and the contents were written by school teachers and other Sierra Leonean Educationalists.
Director Gbla furthered that during the training they will train the teachers how to use those books so that when school reopens they will be able to teach the children the art of reading and writing.
He disclosed that the workshop project jointly implemented in Sierra Leone and Liberia, with the trainers, Dr. Joseph James Mbavai and Josephine Elizabeth Juanah coming from the Njala University who have just returned from the similar exercise in Liberia.
Director Gbla said the two trainers will impart in the trainee teachers what they have learnt nationally and internationally so that by the time schools reopen they teachers would been well grounded in helping the children in their various classrooms.
He added that English language is basis of every subject and the children will not understand Mathematics or History subjects for example, if they cannot read and understand it, as English explanation forms the learning basis for all educational subjects in schools, noting that if a child cannot read well, that child is bound to fail.
He admonished the teachers to focus and learn during the training so that when schools reopen they will impart better knowledge in the children.
The Deputy Minister of Basic Senior Secondary Education, Emile Gogra said before declaring the workshop open admonished the teachers to take the workshop training seriously, adding that CODE Sierra Leone and TALLER Reading Sierra Leone has corroborated with the Ministry of Basic Senior Secondary Education to show what the teachers are going to do.
She pleaded with the teachers that the training given to them is not a talk-shop but a workshop and a carry-away shop to their different classrooms to make learning very effective.
Minister Gogra further that the teachers are the foot soldiers of CODE Sierra Leone and TALLER Reading Sierra Leone and most of all the Ministry of Basic Senior Secondary Education.
Minister Gogra further CODE Sierra Leone and TALLER Reading Sierra Leone they have in their own little way as an NGOs have moved out to the unreachable people to make them practice their classroom management to ensure children read in every subject as the teachers knows that English is involves reading.
She added that the reason why children failed especially public exams is because they did not know how to read, adding that the teachers should be willing after the training to go back and do their assignment.
The Minister furthered that after the training when schools reopen she will personally monitor the schools to see if the teachers are really doing what is expected of them, adding that they should stop grumbling about subsidies, and assured that that issue will be addressed before the reopening of schools.
She went on that when schools reopen the method they have taught them should be implemented in the classrooms, adding that they should be serious whether there is money or not because education is the key to the success of the nation, affirming that the payment of a teacher is blessing and not money.
Minister Gogra ended by encouraging the teachers to be proud of their profession and they should do their work well, and called for respect among teachers and within the teaching profession by inculcating the spirit of togetherness and a sense of unity of purpose.
After the formal opening courtesies, the workshop proper commenced with the participating teachers arranged in two separate classrooms attended by each of the trainers.