The Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) has received an estimated sum of US$106 million funds from different international partners to support the Government’s Free Quality Education.

In a recent interview with the local media, the Project Coordinator of the Free Quality Education, Ambrose T. Sesay, said the funds were international interventions to support His Excellency President Dr. Julius Maada Bio’s ambitious Free Quality Education objective, which is aimed at improving the educational system, teaching practices and learning conditions in the country.
The Project Coordinator disclosed that during the first phase of the project, they received a sum total of US$66 million, and that the World Bank donated US$50 million, while the remaining US$16 million was donated by the European Union (EU), Irish Aid and FCDO.
Mr. Sesay furthered that during the outbreak of COVID-19, they also received another US$6.8 million to support the health and protection of school children to enhance their hygiene and ensure that the learning environment is safe and healthy for them, noting that the total amount for the first phase of the project was US$72 million and the project was approved in June 2020, though it came into effect in September 2020.
The Project Coordinator added that the second additional financial commitments from the international partners came in 2023, and the World Bank through IDA contributed US$20 million, followed by Education About All (EAA) with a sum of US$13 million.
Mr. Sesay disclosed that the sum total the Free Education Project Secretariat has received since its inception is US$106 million and that out of this amount, from 2020 up to this time, they have been able to disburse 79% of the funds to implement different activities to support the President’s flagship programme.
He disclosed that the project would have come to an end in September this year, but because of the second additional finance they received in 2023, the project’s life has been extended to December 2027.
Mr. Sesay furthered that the project is supporting seven different components and one is the Policy Governance, Accountability and Systems Administration, which he said has succeeded in formulating policies such as school catchment area and policy, radical inclusion policy, school safety policy and basic education act.
He said the second component, Teacher Management and Professional Development, is implemented by the Teaching Service Commission (TSC); the third component, School Level Education Development, aims to ensure good learning environment for school children; the fourth component, Project Management and Evaluation, oversees the overall function of the project.
According to Mr. Sesay, the fifth component, Contingent Emergency Response, aims at addressing issues that affect the education system; and, the sixth component, he said was Education COVID-19 Response, which he said had been closed since 2022.
He noted that the seventh component, Enhanced Foundational Learning and Increased Access to Education, aims to support 120,000 (hundred and twenty thousand) out of school children to bring them back to school.
On whether the project has fulfilled the promise to turn all double shift schools to single shift, Mr. Sesay said they have succeeded in turning many schools to single shift, citing Saint Joseph’s Convent and other schools.
The Project Coordinator concluded that in order to help decongest classrooms, they have constructed 367 classrooms nationwide, and that they have furnished and handed over 210 classrooms to the school authorities, adding that there are also more completed classrooms that they would hand over to school authorities anytime soon.