By Hassan I. Conteh
Sierra Leone government prioritizes girls’ education but it is faced with challenges to keep schoolgirls from the streets who go about selling items and the like.
Girl-child Street selling is common to see like it has been over the years.
Most parents and guardians use children to sell to supplements their incomes.
But government had said it would keep off infant boys and girls from selling on the streets.
The pronouncement came at the height of the country’s political campaigns in 2017, running up to 2018’s elections.
President Julius Maada Bio had, through his government, committed to removing a number of young girls and boys from the streets – those engaging in selling smaller items.
But, five-years down the line, the Bio government could not stop girl-children from selling on the streets, with many risking their lives by incoming vehicles.
Mr. Bio’s government, however, is said to have made marked achievements in school-children enrollment figures.
The government of Sierra Leone People’s Party had said it was able to get about 2 million pupils in schools to receive a free education.
The Free & Quality Education flagship project by the government came into existence since September, 2018.
It has run for five years, but this year doubts hang on the air of its continuation.
Sierra Leonean’s parents are wishing the FQE to continue but government seems to draw its curtain down as it struggles to stabilize the economy affected by hyper-inflation and foreign currency shocks.
And that, the potential removal of FQE, surely, is going to affect thousands and millions of Sierra Leonean parents.
If the FQE is removed lots of parents may not be able to get their children back in schools.
Schools in Sierra Leone resumed on September 4, 2023.
This comes two months after President Bio secured a second five-year term in office.
However, President Bio is yet to confirm whether he will continue to pay for many children in Sierra Leone to be educated.
And some parents go with the wind of rumor that there will be no free education this time.
In his last regime, President Bio was shouldering the fees of school-going pupils at basic levels of education to secondary stages.
Now that schools have reopened Kadia’s parents might be worried now.
The girl, age 10, is in class five and had come to stay with her aunt in Waterloo, Freetown’s outskirt during the vacation.
But she, like many of her peers are seen selling different items at Waterloo market on Tuesday September 19, 2023.
When asked why has she not gone to school, Kadia replied briefly:
”I shall go, but I don’t attend here,” she said.
Kadia now wishes to return home to Bonkay village in Mile 91, north of Sierra Leone.
But will her poor mum and dad at the village be able to pay her fees in case government drops off free education.
If so, she will become a drop out including others whose parents may ill-afford to pay fees for their children.