By Hassan Osman Kargbo
As a way to foster the effectiveness of education in Sierra Leone, The Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) had issued a public notice informing that schools countrywide will be reopened today 9 September, 2024, for the 2024/2025 academic year.
This date was established prior to the closure of schools at the end of the last academic year.
The ministry urged parents, pupils and educators to make necessary preparations for the reopening of schools. However parents had raised concern on the high rite of school materials in the market.
Mariama Conteh, a single mother of two noted that, one of the key reasons that some students didn’t attend the first week when school reopened is because some students are still preparing or struggling to get school materials. She said there schools bags that are sold for over NLe250. “Because of the high rite of school materials, you will see only a handful of students in school,” she said.
He added that some parents approved the government’s decision to reopen schools without adequate preparations that would guarantee the safety of their children.
Saidu Ansumana, a business man at PZ said that, why school materials are skyrocketing is as a result of the exchange rite in the country. He said before this time things were better for them because the exchange rate of the Leone to the dollar was Le 750, 000 to U.S. $100 in 2018 when the APC left power. Today, it is closed to Le 2, 450,000 under President Bio. He added that it’s the main reason why everything is moving from bad to worst.
He said apart from school materials, living expenses and cost of foods have gone through the roof because of the corruption and disastrous economic policies of this current regime. Things have become very expensive in Sierra Leone, so expensive that you wonder how people manage to eat and survive in the country and now schools have reopened and some parents are still finding it difficult to buy school materials for their children.
He admitted that when president Bio came to power in 2018, a bag of rice cost Le 200,000 but in just five years of Bio’s rule, a bag of rice is now closed to Le 1000, 000. With basic monthly salaries hovering around Le 800,000, how does this regime expect the people to buy just one bag of rice to feed their families? And other school materials are around to buy.
Mr. Alusine Bah, a businessman in Freetown, remarked that business has become difficult if not impossible to do nowadays due to heavy Government taxation in the country. He mentioned that things are really difficult in the country and schools have reopened which means another expenses. He added that the high cost of rent of school materials in the country is seriously affecting the people.
The reopened of schools is a good news for the education sector but the high rite of school materials is seriously going out of hand in the country. The government and its partners should put things in place so that prices of school materials would be affordable for everyone in the country.
