By Albert George Sheriff
For the first time, twelve principals, headteachers and teachers have been awarded for their promotion of girls' education in Sierra Leone.
The National Excellence Award for Teacher’s Promotion of Girls Education was categorized and a total of 12 teachers nationwide won in the different categories.
The most supportive principal of girl child education in the junior secondary school category was won by Sylvester Meheux of the Government Rokel Secondary School in Freetown. The award of the most supportive
principal of girl child education in senior secondary school went to Monica Elvira Bobson Kamara of the Freetown Secondary School for Girls.
Cassandra Johnson of the St. Augustine Primary School in Lungi won as the most supportive female teacher and the best teacher role model for girls.
The most supportive male teacher category was won by Sheku Foday of the Grace Secondary School Tengbeh Town, while Salamatu Kamara of the Wesleyan Primary School in Port Loko won in the category of the teacher who has worked most tirelessly to promote non-violence against girls in schools.
The award for the most supportive primary school headteacher went to Sulaiman Cole of DEC Bangla Sierra Primary School in Port Loko, and Michael Sylvanus Daramy was awarded the most outstanding guidance councillor.
The longest serving guidance councillor went to Isata Dohra Bangura of the Government Rokel Secondary School who has also served in the teaching field for 38 years.
Abdulai Brima Koroma won in the category of the best girl’s advocate Sierra Leone Teacher’s Union employee teacher of the year.
Dr. Lansana Nyalley and Wilhemina Gloria Elfrida Scott who chaired the award ceremony were both awarded as Ambassadors for girl’s education.
The National Excellence Award for Teachers' Promoter of Girls Education was organized by the Youth and Child Advocacy Network Sierra Leone (YACAN-SL) in collaboration with Sierra Leone Teachers' Union (SLTU) and Plan Sierra Leone.
In his statement the National Coordinator YACAN-SL Hassan Fuad Kanu said that as young people they had sleepless nights and used their energy usefully at all the stages of the programme.
SLTU President, Abdulai Brima Koroma expressed delight to be at the ceremony. He said the quality of education remained low in Sierra Leone and the focus of government to expand primary and secondary school enrolment had come at the expense of improving education quality.
“We wish to draw the attention of all stakeholders to the basic fact that teachers’ conditions of work are simply students’ conditions of learning” he added.
The SLTU President said that the school must not only be child-friendly but must be teacher-friendly too.
The Country Director of Plan Sierra Leone, Augustine Allieu said that the number of children across the world subjected to sexual abuse was shocking and called for greater commitment, effective collaboration, and a
concerted effort to eradicate violence in schools and ensure a safe and assuring learning school environment.
