By Francis Ben Kaifala, Esq
For most emerging economies, and developing countries, one of the common denominators of the problems they face is the high rate of illiteracy. Sierra Leone being one of those countries, it will be almost a cliché to repeat that it has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world – believed to be in excess of 70% on most indices except the UNDP index which sets adult literacy rate for both sexes at 42.1% and conversely sets illiteracy rate at 57.9%.
Within that figure, what is even more worrisome for the future of the country is the gap between the literacy rate for men and women which respectively stands at 46.9% and 24.4% of the total population over 15 years old who can read and write (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate), as no country will prosper with that kind of unfavourable statistic. Even with the efforts of several stakeholders, including the Government, it seems little is being achieved policy-wise to increase female literacy or indeed improve general literacy – which in my view is attributable to certain underlying misconceptions or misapplications of approaches.
The question of limited girls’ education in Sierra Leone is not an issue of misogyny as experienced in other parts of the world. In my humble opinion, it is mostly about pragmatic investment decisions by households in a poor and underdeveloped country vis-à-vis the economic realities families face. Like every shrewd investment, poverty often forces parents to make unfortunate but realistic choices concerning their children’s education. Contrary to popular belief, most Sierra Leonean parents understand the value of education and would like both their boys and girls to equally go to school. However, the economic realities many of these parents face can only allow them to invest in some – not all – of their children. It is in deciding which child goes to school, or even stays in school as is mostly the case, that the underlying patriarchal system of the country comes into play.
To this end, particularly among low income earners and in families where both parents are themselves illiterate, men are traditionally regarded as breadwinners and women as housewives (a misogynistic view which, for the records, I do not share nor do I think is right). Therefore, any pragmatic family investors will educate the son(s) and marry off the daughter(s) as soon as possible. To this end, a traditional ruler once told me that the bride price paid by an in-law from a girl’s marriage could keep her brother in school (A view I do not hold even if it makes a lot of sense to me).
While the merits or demerits of those assertions are clearly easy to guess, suffice it to say that those interested in improving girls’ education in Sierra Leone must understand this dichotomy and ramifications to be able to come up with innovative ideas to address the challenge they face or they will be “throwing water in sand” with their projects.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has consistently reported that poverty is the main reason children are not enrolled or drop out of school. Sierra Leone is rebuilding after a decade of civil war and the country remains one of the poorest in the world. The most recent United Nations Human Development index places the country at 177 out of 187 countries. Therefore, it cannot be gainsaid that all other obstacles to girls’ education such as hunger, lack of fees and uniform, textbooks, early pregnancy, etc. are directly linked to the overall poverty of the country.
Moreover, Sierra Leone is a member of a group of English-speaking West African countries that has subscribed to the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) – a school-leaving examination. For over a decade Sierra Leone has been one of the worst performing countries on the exam. Even more appalling is the fact that many students graduate from secondary school with little ability to communicate in English. The literacy rate of the country remains stagnant at 35.1% of the total population in the global index, with 46.9% and 24.4% for men and women (age 15 and over who can read and write: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate) respectively. This is an appalling rank for a country that, not too long ago, was the citadel of education in West Africa and known as “the Athens of West Africa”— in recognition of its now lost position as an attraction for scholars from elsewhere in the sub-region.
After what seemed to be a situation of no-return, as the standard of education and output continued to take a nosedive, I had a deep sigh of hope as a lawyer practicing in Sierra Leone – a country I hold and cherish deeply in my heart – when a few years ago the Government recognised the crumbling educational system and established a commission to investigate the reasons behind the poor educational system and offer recommendations to ameliorate the system.
The Commission, dubbed the Gbamanja Commission of Enquiry (after its Chairman who is a university professor), was established to look into the poor performance of students at the BECE and WASSCE examinations, as well as to ascertain the impact of the 6-3-3-4 system of education which prescribed six years of primary school, three years each of junior and senior high schools, and four years of university.
As would be reasonably expected, among its many findings, the Commission highlighted poor quality teachers, the lack of textbooks, school fees, overcrowding in classrooms, lack of parental supervision, unprepared students taking the BECE and WASSCE, and corruption in the school system. This, to many, was a mere painful elaborations of the obvious. However, instead of properly implementing solutions to ameliorate the poor state of affairs, which to my mind are simple expressions of poverty, the Government simply added another year of senior schooling, making the system 6-3-4-4; in a hook, line and sinker acceptance of the controversial recommendations of the Gbamanja Commission. That, in my humble view and with utmost respect, was an unfortunate error of judgment which ought to be reversed – as the additional year of school merely shifts the burden from the government to parents who are already overburdened with the high cost of education and entangled by the high cost of living in an already harsh economy. Simply put, another year of school means another year of fees, uniforms, textbooks, transportation, etc. for many impoverished parents (who are in the majority). It gets even worse when juxtaposed with another year of an unjustifiable risk of the girl-child getting pregnant while in school.
Sierra Leone is party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, both of which call for the provision of fundamental education as a right when viewed in conjunction with Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That Article also calls for free education at least at the primary and fundamental stages. In the light of the above, the seeming failure to properly address the issues of fundamental education, especially girls’ education, is in contravention of obligations under International Law. There is no excuse for the poor quality of education in Sierra Leone, including particularly, the systemic marginalisation of girls. The government must invest in free fundamental education for all children and improve the quality of existing institutions.
Therefore, to overcome these challenges the government must view education as an investment second to none. It is high time we invested in the proper education of all children, because nobody benefits when our children, majority of whom are girls, are left in obscurity. As Nelson Mandela once put it, a country’s future is only as promising as its next generation of citizens, and “we can no longer sit and watch while any of our country’s children are held back in the mire of ignorance and lack of skills.” If we are serious about development and progress, we must restore the country to what it once was educationally—the “Athens” of West Africa. Only then we can consider ourselves as being close to being ready to bring about socio-economic revolution within the “Agenda for Prosperity”.
Francis Ben Kaifala is a Barrister and Solicitor and is a postgraduate student at The School of law & the School of Economics and Finance, Queen Mary University of London. E-mail: fkaifala@yahoo.fr
(C) Politico 19/11/13
