By Jesmed Suma
It is my opinion that since the issue of education has profound political implications our policy solutions to this dilemma and its related challenges will certainly depend on the type of development our political leaders seek to promote.
The development of a roadmap therefore would be defined by the main goals of the government in terms of economic growth and improvement of the standard of living of the poor majority.
This must be backed up by the right political will and the right leadership or the continuance of the frustration we are subjected to by the results of current mediocre reforms.
These poor outcomes are due to the fact that our educational system is still led by people who lack a clear guidance as to the steps necessary to dramatically and effectively transform the system. Therefore in our efforts to deal with the problem, we would have to make hard choices. But whatever choices we make amidst the budgetary funds for other high priority socio-economic areas such as energy, food, housing, healthcare or water, it will have implications on education as has been the case over the decades.
However, the most profound would be the choice we make as to who should make such major policy decisions that will always impact our lives from generation to generation.
It has always been my position that for any development effort to be sustainable it must be led by a well-fed, healthy and educated society.
Hence, education, good health and food security must have the highest consideration in our economic policy decision-making. Otherwise what good would a road infrastructure be to a society that is hungry, sick and illiterate; or if such infrastructure is built at the expense of creating a healthy, well fed and educated society?
In any case we would need the full political will of the government in power and the organisational capacity to come up with the right reforms if we are to achieve the critical minimum effort required for success.
Those who have taken the time to pay attention to the problem as I have, would agree with me that the central challenges to our educational system can be grouped into the following two categories, all of which remain speculative until a thorough research is done based on empirical evidence:
1. The impact of external factors can include political, social, economic and cultural factors. Usually, one of the major objectives for policy makers in planning and investing in education is to improve opportunity for the upward social mobility of the poor, narrow the income inequality gap so that the positive effect of education would benefit families, neighbourhoods and communities.
But what if the very economic conditions become a major hindrance to achieving such objectives. Shouldn't we consider those conditions too when formulating the right policies to address the problem? We all know children go to school with considerable differences in ability. While some of these differences maybe genetic others may be influenced by the environment and the economic condition the child is in.
Usually children of upper income groups are more exposed to situations conducive to the development of cognitive and other effective skills including better nourishment and better care than a kid from a very poor family and neighbourhood.
Furthermore, kids from poor families, unlike their peers from upper income families, have errands to run before and after school including babysitting, cooking and fetching water. These challenges are far more burdensome especially on the girl child. Therefore any policy recommendation we may choose to advance must include the role and responsibility of the parents to be understanding and supportive of the child's learning process, if we are to achieve any meaningful success.
2. The inadequacies of the internal factors such as the content and organisational structures of the educational system as it relates to its inequity, inefficiency and ineffectiveness result in the lack of resources directed towards the educational institutions. They also lead to high dropout rates and a mismatch between what our school system produces and what employers need.
As implied above, it is reasonable to opine that the paradoxical solution that needs to be offered must extend beyond the confines of our education system to include our geopolitical system and economic conditions. Remember that whatever education policy we may offer can directly affect the education our people get.
I would therefore ask thus: how can we start a useful dialogue that includes our political leaders to explore possible solutions, I mean practical solutions? The debate would have to include the values that the schools are expected to uphold, the level of investment we need to make in the school system and both capital and recurring investment. But also, how do we fund these investments, the type of changes we need to make to our curriculum so that our school system begins to teach skills that would prepare students for the job market, teacher certification, teacher pay and teaching methods.
It must also include, school privatisation, school size, class size, graduation requirements and quality control. These hypotheses can be supported by further research.
The author it a Sierra Leonean based in the United States
(C) Politico 23/02/16
