The war has caused huge damage to the education infrastructure; 70 per cent of the country’s schools were destroyed or occupied by the rebel group the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Education was interrupted during the war and schools were closed. Significant numbers of children were actively recruited as participants in the conflict. Many students and teachers fled the towns to live in the relative safety of the bush.
Immediately after the war, the country was in chaos with a large number of displaced people and refugees. The new government sent the majority of the children who had lost limbs or were blind to amputees or special schools. These had traditionally catered for all those considered to be outside main stream education.
Sierra Leone has recently made education free for all children by removing school fees. As a result the number of children going to school has tripled. The literacy rate is improving but is still low in comparison with many other African countries; adult literacy is less than 30 per cent, amongst the youth it is 38 per cent.
The majority of children dropped out of school during the war, so there are now primary schools full of children up to the age of 20 going to school again or for the first time.
The schools that were not destroyed are still in terrible conditions and the learning environment is hard. Many schools can not even afford benches or classroom chairs, leaving pupils to sit on concrete blocks or stand. In addition most teachers have not been trained properly; out of 25,000 teachers in Sierra Leone, more than 40 per cent have no qualifications or received any training. This makes it hard for them to deal with the large classes and few resources. Teachers’ salaries are £27 per month, which is not enough. Often they juggle teaching with a second or third job to make ends meet.
Although the majority of children in Sierra Leone now go to school, there is still a long way to go with the construction of schools destroyed by the war. Thousands of children today are still being denied an education because they have had a leg or arm missing, making their suffering worse.
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