Making his statement, Hon. Dominic T. Lavaile Jaybeh, welcomed the commission and noted that it is the responsibility of parliament by law to interface with MDA’s and work in consonant to move the nation forward. He encourages them to take the activities of the commission seriously especially at this time when the education sector is treated as a new baby under the new government of President Bio. Hon. Lavalie, pleaded with the government to give scholarships to teachers in the English and mathematics sections so as to encourage them find pleasure in the teaching field.
Making her statement, the chairperson of the Commission, Dr. Staneala M. Beckley thanked the committee for inviting them to have firsthand information sharing process. She said she is coming as the first chairperson of the commission and her challenges are enormous. Giving a run-down of the commission’s activities Dr. Beckley pleaded with the oversight committee to work with them especially in guiding their activities. She said as a new service commission they are working effectively to ammonize the concerns of teaches and ensue there is a common ground in the teaching profession and that of the ministry of primary and secondary education.
Dr. Beckley further explained that the commission conducted a situation analysis which shows that 40% of teachers are untrained and unqualified, statistically a single teacher has a responsibility of teaching 111 pupils in the rural areas of the country, the poor performance of pupils in both mathematics and English in public examinations is as a result of the low standard of teachers. Sighting an example ‘’Dr. Beckley said how can a person with a BECE result teach a pupil attempting the WASSCE’’. All of these are some of the challenges the education sector is facing and they should be looked into for the country to have a solid educational stand.
Miss Amy Bellinger lead consultant Education Work Force Initiative, when making her statement said the work force initiative was formed by Globen Brown to look into the education problems faced by countries and that Sierra Leone will be the third country to benefit from it after Ghana and Thailand. Miss Bellinger said the initiative is to empower teachers to be effective in their teaching profession and to use technology as their key tool. She explains further that technology is playing an important role in the different sectors of the world and if use in the education sector will motivate pupils to stay in schools and improve learning.
Honorable members of the committee shared similar views in relations to their constituencies they represent.
The committee promised to work with the commission to actualized their mandate and objectives.
