Magburaka Residents urge Government to fulfill TRC Tri-Recommendations for Children’s School Education

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson

One of the utmost aims of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Sierra Leone is to ensure that never again violations of human rights such as drugging, forced recruitment, rape, and sexual assault be meted on children as it was during the nation’s civil war. Therefore, the Commission made recommendations on the following areas in order to ensure the welfare of children in Sierra Leone.

These include: Child Rights Bill, Age of Majority, Adoptions, Fostering and Guardianship, Early Marriages, Sexual Offences against Children, School Education and Laws on the Employment of Children to ensure that the rights of children are fully protected are to be ensured by the government.

Among the areas highlighted above, school education is the prime focus of this publication as it is considered to be the basic building block for national development. The TRC recommendation 385 clearly states that, ‘’The Commission notes that primary school education is supposedly made available free of charge to all children. The Commission recommends that no “hidden charges” or “chalk fees” be levied against parents. Free primary school education must mean free in every sense of the word. The Government should work towards the fulfilment of this recommendation.’’

In response to this recommendation, His Excellency, President Retired Brigadier-General Julius Maada Bio launched the free quality education program in August 2018.

However, Children in the Tonkolili district headquarter town of Magburaka who are supposed to enjoy free education in every sense of the word, and some parents who are supposed to send their children to school like other districts in Sierra Leone are still farfetched from doing so.

This violates recommendation 384 of the TRC which states that“… primary school education be compulsory for all children. It should be an offence not to send children to primary school.’’

In order to make education thrive in Sierra Leone, the Commission’s recommendations also point out that “…the Government should work towards fulfilling these recommendations by providing incentives to encourage children of school going age to attend secondary school.”

Media Reform Coordinating Group-Sierra Leone (MRCG-SL) with support from Africa Transitional Justice Legacy Fund (ATJLF) sought from key duty bearers, parents and young school dropouts on some of the causes and impacts of the increasing rate of children dropping out of school in Magburaka.

“With the advent of the free quality education since 2018, we have had remarkable increase in the number of approved schools. Today, over 250 schools including long existing private and commercial schools in the district have been approved by the Government of Sierra Leone, Teaching Service Commission (TSC) has confirmed.

Mrs. Fatmata Fofanah, a trader and mother of two children in classes two and six in Magburaka admitted that access to free education in Magburaka is very challenging. As a single mother, Fatmata cited that financial constrains is a huge challenge as she finds it difficult to raise money from her small business to buy school items like uniforms, books, pens and to cover lunch and other financial requests from teachers. This she said has been challenging for her for the past five years and she is deeply worried about whether her children will return to school when schools reopen this year.

Ya-M’balu Kamara, a 54 years old woman pleaded for Government’s quick intervention to actualize the TRC recommendations on school education for children in every part of the country so that her seven children who are schooling in Magburaka will also benefit and prevent them from dropping out of school. At the same time, if fully actualized, the free education will help her put an end to her daily street peddling of fruits in order to make money to take care of her children.

The Tonkolili District Council Deputy Chairperson, Alimamy Samuel Kamara said he is impressed with the current 100% increase in the number of schools in the Northeastern district as compared to a decade ago. “This is a positive start to enhancing the TRC recommendations for Children’s Education in the country but duty bearers should do more in terms of Teachers motivation and public sensitization of the people of Magburaka to reduce poverty, end corruption in schools so that there will be an increase in the number of children attending schools in Magburaka.’’

Victor Kamara, the Deputy Director at the Tonkolili District Teaching Service Commission office in Magburaka said there is seeming progress in achieving some of TRC recommendations on School Education for children, noting it’s as a result of the massive recruitment and approval drive by the Government through the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary School Education which a good number of long serving community teachers in elementary, primary and secondary schools have benefited from.

“Despite all of these efforts we still have problems of poor roads leading to some schools, teachers’ recruitments, some parents refusing to enroll their children in schools early, teachers not wanting to deploy to remote areas among others. Kamara highlighted.

He further called on teachers and parents to encourage children in Magburaka to embrace the free quality education and that government and partners should put an end to lip service and prioritize education for all children in the country.

25 years old Alie Kamara and Isatu Sesay, 28 are former pupils of the Government Secondary School for Boys Secondary and SDA Primary School. The former now sells mobile top-up and the latter now sells coconut along Magburaka-Matotoka highway. Both expressed frustration on the part of their parents and government for failing to support them to continue their education which they said has today exposed them to mockery from former classmates who are still schooling. “Government should implement economic boosting schemes to enable every parents to be able to take care of their families and send their children to school.