He made this pronouncement at the national examination malpractice conference hosted by Breakaway Education Coalition, in partnership with Fontricia Children’s Foundation and Rightsway International at the conference hall of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) on Saturday 12th March 2016.
Bah, who chaired the conference attended by civil society and educational activists, journalists, politicians and international nongovernmental organisations, said the need to liberalise the educational system in Sierra Leone cannot be overemphasized, as according to him, WAEC has lost its essence.
He said Sierra Leone should operate a functional education system that positively responds to the needs of the society.
“The performance, credibility and ability of WAEC to function accordingly is questionable,” he noted, adding that the national examining body no longer has the moral ability to serve as the ‘gatekeeper’.
He expressed satisfaction that young Sierra Leonean activists are teaming up to end the vicious circle of bad education in Sierra Leone, noting that this is the first time that the credibility of WAEC is being challenged on a large scale notwithstanding the fact that these problems had been there since at least 1972.
He vowed to support every effort to restore credibility in the examination system in Sierra Leone and frown against educational institutions that have been rendered useless.
The current educational system in Sierra Leone, according to him, is denying people the basic human rights to fair trial and education.
Statements from the Director of Fontricia Children’s Foundation, Rightsway International, Sierra Leone Debating Council, Native Think Tank Consortium, Breakaway Education Coalition were focused on calls to move away from the WAEC British system of education to some other viable alternatives.
At the end of the conference, it was unanimously resolved for the country to start working towards breaking away from the WAEC system. There were further calls to drag WAEC to court for criminalising innocent pupils.
