Four Hull schools have arrived back in the UK after an exciting visit to meet their partner schools in Freetown.

Staff from Winifred Holtby Secondary, Dorchester Primary, Sutton Park Primary and St Richard’s Primary were funded through the DfID British Council Global Schools Partnerships to develop partnerships with Albert Academy, Cathedral Primary, Conforti Community Primary and Children in Crisis Primary.

The partnerships have been developed by journalist Matt Stephenson, who first visited Freetown when working in collaboration with Hull based media collective Cafesociety.org.

“After listening to children and young people in Freetown and Hull, in getting the opportunity to experience something of their lives, I felt that developing educational links was possibly the most sustainable way of bringing long-term benefits to children in both cities. There is a huge amount that we can all learn from each other.” explained Matt.

It was an event-filled visit: a tropical storm on the ferry from Lunghi airport provided the visitors with an exciting introduction to life in Sierra Leone.

Other highlights included an appearance and feature about the visit on national TV news, meeting the Minister of Education, a trip up-country to Makeni, a visit to church, a beach barbecue and football at Kent, singing Krio hymns in the poda-poda, shopping at the Big Market and much more.

But it was the school visits which will make the most lasting impressions. All of the UK guests were moved an inspired by meeting the staff and teachers in their partner schools. “We had the most amazing welcome everywhere we went.” explained Dorchester Primary head-teacher Sue Liddle. “There were gifts, dancing and many moments when we got to speak to pupils and even visit their homes. But I think the most striking thing was the difficult conditions that everyone has to endure - derelict buildings, lack of power, no resources or books… it makes you wonder how people manage to teach or learn, and also makes you realise how much we have in the UK.”

This visit to Freetown is just the first stage of a newly developing programme of Hull schools linking with partners in Freetown. A visit to Hull by the freetown partners will take place next March, and following that another seven or eight schools in Hull are hoping to join the programme.

For more information email: matt@hullman.karoo.co.uk

Four schools from Hull have recently gained funding from the British Council DfID Global Schools Partnerships programme to develop partnerships with schools in Hull’s twin city, Freetown.

Staff and head teachers from Winifred Holtby Secondary, Sutton Park Primary, Dorchester Primary and St Richard’s Primary in Hull will be visiting Albert Academy Secondary, Conforti Community Aid Primary, Cathedral Primary and Children in Crisis Primary schools in Freetown on October 22, 2008.

The partnership project grew out of work initiated by Freetown Society members Matt Stephenson and Jon Robson during their trip to Freetown in March 2007.

Matt and Jon visited a number of schools in Freetown and were keen to develop links that would enable young people in both cities to learn more about each other’s lives:

“The conflict and poverty in Sierra Leone mean that the people often feel isolated and overlooked,” said Matt, “yet there is a very rich and vibrant culture there and a great deal that people in Hull can learn from the experience of Salonians.

“Similarly, Hull - and particularly the estates like Bransholme where three of our partner schools are based - is an isolated city that has had its own share of social challenges.

“We really hope that this new partnership will enable the schools to reach out into the wider world, learn about other cultures and make real, lasting relationships that will benefit children’s learning both in Hull and in Freetown.”

We’ll keep you up to date with the partnerships and how they progress, through regular postings on the Freetown Society’s blog and news pages.

For more information about this work contact Matt Stephenson: matt@hullman.karoo.co.uk

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.

The authorities in Sierra Leone have started a campaign against a recent spate of violence linked to inter-school sporting events.

Fighting between pupils has broken out repeatedly in recent months, with most of the incidents concentrated in the capital, Freetown.

It has become common for schoolchildren to smuggle weapons like knives, razor blades and bottles into the national stadium, where most of the competitions take place.

As rival groups spill out on to the street, motorists and passers-by have been caught up in the clashes.

Some have been injured and property has been destroyed.

Banned

School violence in Sierra Leone is not new. At the end of civil war in 2002, some schoolchildren who had been recruited as child soldiers by rebel groups still carried guns.

These pupils may now have moved on but two of the capital’s oldest schools - the Albert Academy and the St Edwards Secondary School - have been banned from the sports competitions because of repeated confrontations between pupils earlier this year.
A few months ago, it took the intervention of newly elected President Ernest Bai Koroma to pacify pupils of the Muslim Congress school in eastern Freetown.

They had engaged the police in running battles after vandalising nearby property.

Police Assistant Inspector-General Tamba Gbekie says the violence has developed into “a major post-war security problem”.

“We have therefore increased the capacity of our operations support division to deal with such incidents,” he says.

In some cases, police have been accused of responding with excessive force - an accusation they have denied.

Foreign music

Mr Gbekie says the operational division has undergone additional training in crowd control and quelling riots, and do not need to use heavy force.

“We have started a new partnership with school-based organisations to help reduce violence and we believe this will go a long way to help ease the problem,” he told the BBC.

Simeon Jaka, a teacher with 35 years of experience, blames the surge in school violence on new social trends and the influence of foreign media and music.
“The key reason for this violent behaviour of school kids is the influence of the western media, violent movies and songs, violent behaviour of the stars.”

“The kids copy these and bring them to the school environment,” he says.

The emerging music scene in Sierra Leone has witnessed an increase in the number of schoolchildren composing hard-core hip hop lyrics with violent contents, and sometimes translating those lyrics into action.

The children adopt names for themselves and school clubs such as The Nigga Killers, The Death Squad, or The Assassins.

Mr Jaka also acknowledges that standards have fallen considerably in schools and that discipline is at a low ebb.

“Overcrowding in classrooms and the lack of sufficient motivation for teachers are additional factors for this problem,” he says.

‘Message of peace’

Some pupils have, however, taken it upon themselves to eradicate violence from schools.

Students from St Edwards in Freetown have formed the Students Anti-Violence Movement and have been touring schools to urge their colleagues to eschew violence.
Bernard Conteh, a high school pupil who helped set up the new group, told the BBC that their campaign had made considerable progress.

“We have established branches in some 20 secondary schools in Freetown and we intend to spread across the country, into the provinces,” he said.

He says the group’s objective is to “police” school events and ensure violence-free atmosphere.

“We don’t really need the police, we are capable of turning the minds of our colleagues away from violence.

“A good number of colleagues who were notorious for violence are now active members of our organisation, helping to spread the message of peace.”

Before inter-school activities begin again in September, the Student Anti-Violence Movement says it is planning a series of activities, including debates and aptitude contests.

Nevertheless, the campaign against school violence has a long way to go.

The Digital Citizens learning programme was developed in collaboration between Hull-based multimedia innovators Cafésociety.org and Creative Partnerships Hull.

The programme was set to forge a creative exchange between children and young people in the twinned cities of Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Hull, UK. At the heart of this programme was the desire to provide a platform for the views and creativity of its young participants.

The programme was designed specifically to excite and engage through a dynamic, cross-curricular and multicultural approach with the strong use of film making, photography and innovative use of ICT.

26/10/2007 - 27/10/2007 - Guildhall - Hull

This conference at Guildhall, Kingston upon Hull, will bring together community-based groups and individuals in the UK who have links with partners or an interest in West Africa. We are holding this conference in collaboration with Freetown Society and Hull City Council.

Hull City Council has a long standing link with Freetown in Sierra Leone which involves many of Hull’s schools, churches and community groups. This conference will be part of the Wilberforce 2007 celebrations around the abolition of slavery. We are also delighted that John Prescott MP has agreed to open the conference on Friday 26th October.

The purpose of the conference is:- To learn more about each other, to promote and develop community-based links between West Africa and the UK for mutual benefit § To explore slavery in today’s world, focusing on slavery in UK and West Africa.

The cost of the conference will be £50/head or £10 for students. This will include attendance at the conference and meals during the two days but not accommodation or travel costs. For more information please contact Pepi at UKOWLA email: pepi@ukowla.org.uk

For further info please click here :-

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