By Alusine Fullah

During his campaign in the 2018 general elections, President Julius Maada Bio made education as his flagship program. Many Sierra Leoneans were politically seduced by this flagship: Free Quality Education.

Just after he won the elections from his main challenger, Samura Kamara, on Monday 20 August 2018, President Julius Maada Bio launched the first phase of the free, quality education package for government and government-assisted schools. Parents, school authorities, pupils, education authorities and government officials outside the Miatta Conference Centre were in a celebratory mood prior to the unveiling of the free, quality education package.

Electricity is central to the broader development agenda. Without electricity it is unlikely that development projects and public investments, such as schools and community centres, can achieve their intended goals. The expansion of technology initiatives in rural areas, such as supplying laptops to students, will not be sustainable without reliable connections to electricity. Electricity is also essential for basic things like charging one’s mobile phone or powering a household water pump and heater.

It has broader implications too. A lack of electricity prevents efforts to improve election quality, as the equipment for biometric registration and identification requires a reliable connection. For example, biometric voters’ lists couldn’t be managed in some areas in Kenya’s 2013 elections because computers ran out of battery power by midday. They were unable to be charged at polling stations.

Meanwhile, the provision of electricity is meant to facilitate inclusive growth and development by increasing spread and Coverage. The development impacts of electrifying rural communities enhance greater output for household members engaged in income-generating activities, such as sewing, knitting, and other handcrafts activities.

From the social point of view, modern electricity is very vital for the sustainability of President’s Bio Free Quality Education (FQE). It is clear that there at this massive blackout the FQE means nothing.

The lack of electricity in schools is unfortunate, because of the multiple services it can provide in the classroom. Sustainable energy can enable classes to be taught early in the morning or late at night. Electricity access facilitates the introduction of ICTs into the classroom such as computers and televisions. Electrified schools can enable principals to recruit and retain better qualified teachers, and have been correlated with improvements on both test scores and graduation rates.

As one study states, electricity “allows the access of lower-income people to lighting, communication, as well as a variety of educational delivery opportunities … A major impact of electrification has been reducing illiteracy and improving the quality of education.” The inverse is also true: schools without electricity tend to perform more poorly than electrified counterparts. As one study noted, “extremely poor infrastructure has an effect on teachers, as well as pupils…”