By Janet A. Sesay

The Association of Language and Literacy Educators Reading Sierra Leone (TALLER-Sierra Leone) and CODE Sierra Leone have together, launched thirty-seven thousand, four hundred reading books (37,400) for pupils and students in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.

The launching of these books took place on Friday, 22nd August 2025 at the Freetown Polytechnic College at Jui in Freetown.

The books are aimed at promoting sustainable quality education in the country and they were written by our Sierra Leoneans under the supervision of the Ministries of Basic Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE), Technical and Higher Education (THE) and the Teaching Service Commission (TSC). The books will be included in the schools’ curriculum for pupils and students to read and widen their brains.

During the launching ceremony, Lamin Sesay, the Program Manager in the office of CODE-Sierra Leone in his overview of the TALLER-Sierra Leone project, highlighted that the project is co-implemented in Sierra Leone and Liberia, with a focus on maintaining focus on active learning and gender responsiveness and the promotion of equal learning opportunities for both boys and girls in enhancing literacy across all subjects.

He said the focus now on Sierra Leone is on literacy and they are encouraging teachers to promote the teaching of literacy even when they are teaching subjects such as Mathematics.

Director Lamin maintained that there are aspects of learning that teachers should include in the teaching of Mathematics that have been imputed in the books to promote the literary competency of students.

He said teachers would be encouraged to display some of the learning materials in their classrooms to ensure an enriched learning environment for their pupils and students.

Director Lamin disclosed that a team of Trainer of Trainers sent by CODE-Sierra Leone has just returned from neighboring Liberia for the training for local teachers and the indicators. He added that most of their projects are designed for teachers and their Indicators so ensure a synchronized and coordinated teaching and learning processes, and mentioned a planned rollout an expert literacy materials for both teachers and indicators.

Director Lamin emphasized the importance of reading, pointing out that they cannot keep training teachers without having the rightful resources to back them up in their classrooms and teaching exercises. He said that is why they have worked with Man Power Communications to design and develop these supplementary readers. He stressed the reading are not only developed for Sierra Leone, but also for Liberia using the services of local writers from both countries.

He noted that the reading materials is a paradigm shift from the mundane reading of books in our libraries that are designed and written by people the readers don’t know and can’t relate with, nor can they relate adequately with what they are reading about. “These books that we have launched are books our readers will relate with by design and in context because they are designed and written by people they can now easily relate with,” Director Lamin noted.

Madam Emile Gogra, the Deputy Minister of Basic Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) in her keynote speech recognized the stakeholders for gracing the launching ceremony and thanked the foot soldiers for organizing a proper launching event.

She said this project has started since when now Chief Minister, Dr. David Moinina Sengeh was Minister of Basic Senior Secondary Education, highlighting that the then Minister was gifted with a copy of one the learning books, which she said he had appreciated and worked with it accordingly during his tenure.

Minister Gogra expressed delight for receiving the books on behalf of the Government for onward usage to nurture young minds and in building a foundation of literate children for the future of the country, while recognizing that with education go along with empowerment, strength and confidence, requisites that are fundamental for future growth of children.

She pointed out that with adequate teaching and learning materials such these provided by TALLER-Sierra Leone and CODE-Sierra Leone there is bound to be empowerment at both teachers and pupils’ levels as it will ensure the power to read, expressing hope that the teachers will encourage their pupils and students to inculcate the habit of reading.

She encouraged pupils and students to read pointing out that reading helps build the brain, enables critical thinking and builds the capacity and ability to verbally express oneself in the wake of whatever perspective one determines, as well as develop skill in versatility especially in response to perspectives of other people.

The Minister maintained that having the books distributed will be a significant replacement of the past for a prosperous future education sector in Sierra Leone, noting that Government’s investment in the education sector over the years including training of teachers will now be reinforced with the launch and subsequent distribution of these new set of learning materials.

Minister Gogra described the TALLER-Sierra Leone and CODE-Sierra Leone initiative as laudable and called on all stakeholders within the education sector to take ownership of the initiatives by ensuring the usage and protection of the materials so that together they would contribute to the general transformation of habits and lives of the future leaders of the country.

“The books cover all subject areas. I encourage the teachers to first read and understand them so they can be able to properly help their pupils and students,” Deputy Minister Gogra stated.

While expressing gratitude to all those who tirelessly worked on the project at different levels, she gave an orthopedic meaning of BOOK thus:

B: Book of organized knowledge.

O; Opened up forever.

O: Open, mold and make reading a habit; and,

K: Keep reading and learning.

Alhaji Sallieu Kanu Director of program and partnership TALLER Reading-Sierra Leone explained the purpose of the project as meeting the needs and urgency to start the cord for a transformative education system in the country.

Director Kanu expressed satisfaction as a local organization to work and partner with a credible organization in Canada in support of their initiative. He said the program seeks empower both teachers and pupils to be able to read and comprehend learning materials.

He said it is only reading that can make a young mind grow and develop it adequately to participate in the future development processes of the country.

He emphasized that a lot has been happening behind the scene, adding that they have been doing book development and increasing enough learning materials for pupils and students.

Director Kanu furthered that the launching and subsequent distribution of these new set of books is a continuation of what they have been doing over the years, noting that the difference with these new set of books is that they are designed not only to aid pupils and students, but also to support teacher training institutions to be able to adequately teach and train teachers of purpose and substantial delivering abilities within the education sector. He said the books will be distributed to both schools and teacher training colleges, libraries and to ordinary Sierra Leone just to encourage the culture of reading across the country.

One of the book writers, Mohammed Sheriff and also the Executive Director of Pampana Communication Publishing and Media Consultancy expressed delight at being present at the launch of the books, and paid tribute to what he said was “a product of team work and passion” of people who feel that children need books to read about their country and the world, and expressed hope that the books will be of benefit to all categories of learners and readers across the country.

He thanked the Government, stakeholders and local partners for entrusting them with the work.

Mrs. Comfort Yeama Kougbaka, the Deputy Director at the Teaching Service Commission thanked the sponsors of the projects for bringing it to fruition. She assured that the Commission will endeavor to put in place a rigorous monitoring mechanism of the books, while calling on beneficiaries, teachers and initiators of the project to ensure the books are put to their intended purpose.

Speaker after speaker from the various stakeholder institutions invited to the ceremony expressed delight over the initiative and encouraged the teachers and beneficiaries to make good use of the materials, with a warning that any misuse, such as the sale of the materials, would be hugely frowned at by Government and the partner organizations who have spent so much resources and time to develop and distribute the materials free for the purpose of according children in Sierra Leone a befitting literary education.

The climax of the ceremony was marked by the official launching of the books and other reading materials by the Deputy Minister of Basic Senior Education, Madam Emile Gogra sandwiched by education sector stakeholders.