WAEC and AML workers pose for the camera
By Bampia James Bundu
Officials of the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, have inspected the adult literacy and numeracy programme being conducted for community people by iron ore miner, Africa Minerals, at Pepel in the Port Loko district.
Shirlene Carew, coordinator of the programme, said the main reason for the move was to instill some knowledge into their workers and enable them communicate effectively with foreign nationals, read and understand the safety signs and follow due protocols within the mining camp.
She said that over the years they had had a lot of complaints from foreign nationals regarding some barriers in communication, but that with the new programme things would change and the working condition would improve.
She appealed to officials from WAEC to assess the programme and see how best they could streamline it to fit into the national curriculum.
“One of my dreams is to transform some of these workers from unskilled to skilled and to add more respect and dignity to them”, she said, adding that they had enrolled about 100 workers into the programme.
She assured that the company was determined and ready to follow the recommendations of WAEC and to enroll more workers into the programme.
Head of Community and Public Relations, Anthony Navo, said AML took education very seriously and would therefore be helping a lot of people in the country.
“Over the past two years we have given out about 15,000 scholarships to deserving students across the country”, he said, adding that the company was working to revive the Magburaka Training Institute and ensure that they train more Sierra Leoneans in and outside the company.
Ports Operations Manager, Tony Dhanwanthi, commended the initiative and observed that workers were very personate about being educated, as most of them were illiterate.
He appealed to the officials to structure the programme to a more standard and effective one for all to benefit from it.
Head of WAEC, Sheriff Mohamed Sapateh, commended African Minerals for not only establishing an adult literacy and numeracy programme but for also supporting the Magburaka Training Institute to come back to existence.
He noted that adult education was one major aspect of learning that would warrant a lot of attention and concerns.
“It will help illiterate people to understand basic and common signs and spellings. We will have to sit together with AML to discuss the programme and come out with a successful plan”, he said.
(C) Politico 19/11/13
