Detractors of His Excellency President Dr. Julius Maada Bio’s Free Quality School Education (FQSE) flagship programme are of the erroneous view that the education system in the country has faced several setbacks, especially in public examinations, such as the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

The so-called detractors have claimed that thousands of pupils have been unfairly prevented from writing their WASSCE due to issues such as registration errors, missing data, and administrative negligence that culminated in the misplacement of candidates’ names and BRS.

Following the blame game by detractors, senior officials at the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) and critical education stakeholders including the West African Examination Council (WAEC), Sierra Leone Teachers’ Union (SLTU) and the Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (CPSS) met at the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Headquarters at Tower Hill in Freetown.

It was a frank and necessary meeting where they confronted head-on the troubling issues surrounding the integrity of our public examinations and the Continuous Assessment (CASS) system.

It was established at the meeting that while public examinations are a cornerstone of our education system, yet we continue to battle false registrations, missed deadlines, fabricated data, and troubling allegations of bribery and fraud. While majority schools managed to properly upload their CASS 1 data, others blamed connectivity issues and delayed on purpose trying to sneak in unqualified pupils. This undermines everything the MBSSE is trying to build.

The education stakeholders also shared openly that last year alone, over 10,500 candidates were left out of national examinations, and it took direct intervention from H.E. the President to secure US$500,000.00 to remedy the situation, which the MBSSE believes cannot continue.

Consequently, the MBSSE is already implementing sanctions as follows: 1) Principals who failed to submit CASS 2 data have been suspended without salaries for 6 months 2) For CASS 3, less than two months remaining, and only 57% of schools have complied.

That is not acceptable 3) Those school leaders that failed to upload CASS 1 causing pupils not to be eligible for their exams are going to be investigated and if found wanting will be held accountable.

This is not just about statistics; it is about credibility, about justice, and about the very soul of our education system. The MBSSE owes the children of Sierra Leone a system where merit, not manipulation, defines their future.

If it continues to compromise standards today, it is destroying Sierra Leone’s future professionals - doctors, engineers, leaders before they even begin.

The ACC Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala was commended for his powerful words and unwavering support, while the meeting acknowledged the courage and honesty of the CPSS representatives and SLTU members who admitted flaws created in the system that must be fixed now.

By and large, they agreed that the Free Quality School Education (FQSE) has been a massive success since its introduction in 2018 as His Excellency President Dr. Julius Maada Bio’s flagship programme. The following have been achieved since the introduction of the FQSE:

The FQSE has created more access to education at the primary and secondary levels than before; eight thousand teachers were recruited and eleven thousand teachers were replaced; payment of school fees; introduction of Awards for best teachers across the country; construction of more classrooms and rehabilitation of school buildings; free university tuition fee for children of teachers with ten years of experience; effective Teaching Service Commission (TSC); free schooling feeding for pupils in the provincial areas; increase in teachers' salaries; and supply of learning materials.

The government and its development partners are investing heavily in the FQSE because His Excellency the President believes that education is a pathway for any nation to thrive. Recently participating in the Global Summit on Education in London, His Excellency President Dr. Julius Maada Bio said: “I want to start off by saying that access to quality education is a fundamental human right, we want to make sure that human capital development is inclusive.

There is, of course, gender disparity, especially in the schools. Certain norms and discrimination have not allowed the girls to be able to continue in education. So, we have to take care of that.

As a leader who is very passionate about education, I do not intend to leave any girl behind.”

President Bio is investing over 20% of the country’s budget in education, this will help the country to realize the benefit of education in the future not only for the girls but for the boys as well.