By Jarrah Kawusu-Konte
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — At first glance, the chalkboard lessons at Mabonto Community Secondary School seem like any other across Sierra Leone. But scratch beneath the surface and you find a system unraveling. In Kailahun, pupils are still waiting for textbooks. In Karene, teachers rotate between five classes a day. Everywhere, hundreds of students were turned away from national exams for technical faults not of their making. From coast to hinterland, city to chiefdom, the promise of “Free Quality School Education (FQSE)” has buckled under the weight of poor leadership, improper planning, late disbursements, and a government that has turned policy into performance without substance.
“Every term, we prepare for the subsidy,” said a headmaster in Gbendembu. “But it comes after the school term ends, or not at all. What are we supposed to do with promises when we cannot pay exam supervisors or buy chalk?”
Schools’ daily reality, the quiet crisis.
At a government secondary school in Mongo Bendugu, Falaba District, a teacher gestures to the blackboard, cracked and fading. “We have three pieces of chalk left for the week,” she says. “No books. No markers. And no word from the ministry.”
Her students walk two miles each morning, only to sit on classroom floors. Teachers rotate across grades because half the staff are volunteer workers, waiting years for pin codes. The fact that teaching and learning materials are lacking, teachers borrow chairs from churches, principals plead for school subsidies that are either too little or arrive too late, if they arrive at all, has undermined every aspect of school management, deepened inequalities, and gutted learning outcomes. What began in 2018 as a vision for education equality has now become a national emergency. And unlike the fault lines politicians use to divide us – tribe, region, party, – this crisis knows no boundaries. It has reached every school, touched every home, and undermined every child’s right to a future.
“What are we teaching them?” a teacher asks, not rhetorically. “To wait? To endure disappointment?”
Learning Interrupted, Futures Derailed
In every region, the effects are the same: attendance is falling, teacher morale is collapsing, and faith in the public school system is eroding. Across the country, parents are pulling children out of public schools, and those who stay miss entire terms during the West African Examination Council (WAEC) crisis. Wherever you go, you hear the same question: What is the future of our children?
Schools that depend on the Ministry of Finance for subsidies to pay auxiliary staff, procure teaching materials, and run feeding programmes have been repeatedly left waiting. Yes, teachers are paid through the central government payroll. But many auxiliary staff, including cleaners, cooks, security guards, are financed through local school subsidies. When allocations are delayed, these support workers vanish, and schools cannot function safely or cleanly. The result is a growing hidden cost in so-called “free” education. That includes pupils carrying benches from home, community members holding fundraisers for school supplies, and teachers moonlighting to survive. In the meantime, parents are asked to contribute, and many can’t. So learning stalls, or students drop out. This is a national betrayal.
FQSE: A Grand Vision in Shallow Waters
When President Julius Maada Bio launched FQSE in 2018, he framed it as a legacy-defining reform. “No child should be denied education because of poverty,” he declared. But critics say the initiative, while noble in intent, has been woefully short on execution. This breakdown isn’t just operational. It affects the very soul of learning. Without early-term supplies, lesson plans collapse. Without feeding programmes, attendance drops. Without teacher support, morale sinks.
“Vision without timely funding is hallucination,” said a school board chairman in Moyamba. “You cannot feed children, pay teachers, and print exam papers with speeches.”
Exam Chaos: WAEC in Crisis, Students in Limbo
The 2025 collapse of the West African School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) and Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) administration is perhaps the most alarming symptom of this deeper failure. Over 40,000 students were barred from sitting national exams due to administrative lapses blamed on school principals, students punished for failures in leadership, and parents left in tears.
But behind those blame shifting is a painful truth: many schools lacked the internet, resources, and support needed to submit Continuous Assessment Scores (CASS) on time. The Ministry of Education offered no buffer, no second chances. Essentially, the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education failed to coordinate timely submission of Continuous Assessment Scores (CASS) to WAEC.
WAEC’s systems are standard across West Africa. Nigeria, Ghana, and The Gambia had no such crisis. Even Sierra Leone itself managed smoothly until recent years. But under this administration, procedural breakdown and institutional indifference turned a technical task into a disaster. Notably, Sierra Leone’s own exam history was stable until recent years. Under the previous APC administration, WAEC processes, though imperfect, never triggered mass exclusion. The 2025 disaster marks the first systemic collapse of WAEC.
“WAEC isn’t broken. The government’s relationship with WAEC is,” said an education officer in Port Loko. “They failed to follow WAEC’s timelines, protocols and training procedures, and students paid the price.”
“This was not just a glitch,” said a WAEC liaison officer in Bo. “It was a collapse of governance.”
An educationist writing in Education for Transformation, warned years ago: “Any education reform that lacks consistency and coherence at the point of delivery will deepen inequality, not reduce it.”
The government may cite budget constraints. But what communities demand is not charity, it’s effectiveness and accountability. Education isn’t just about chalkboards and classrooms. It is about equity, nation-building, and hope. It is the tool that lifts communities out of poverty and plants the seeds of self-reliance. And when a government fails to deliver the most basic components, textbooks, salaries, exams, it doesn’t just fail a policy test. It fails a moral test.
Paulo Freire, the great Brazilian philosopher of education, once said: “Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful.” By ignoring the daily struggles of students and teachers, this government has sided with apathy over action, with appearances over accountability.
A National Crossroads: We Need Competence, Not Campaigns
This is no longer a debate about party politics. This is a call to national conscience. The collapse of Sierra Leone’s education system is not a northern tragedy or an eastern embarrassment, nor is it a southern lamentation, or a western region disaster. It is a Sierra Leonean emergency. And it demands serious, credible, and competent leadership.
But when budget delays turn into broken school terms, when promises travel faster than disbursements, and when school administrators wait in vain for resources, a generation risks being left behind. Our children are not asking for miracles. They’re asking for chairs, for teachers, for organised and effective coordination of the schooling. Education remains the most powerful equalizer a nation can offer. That is why this election cycle must not be about region or tribe. It must be about who has the capacity, clarity, and credibility to fix what is broken.
The Way Forward: Why APC Must Lead, and Why Dr. Ibrahim Bangura Must Be Chosen
The All People’s Congress (APC) must present the nation with more than just a political alternative, it must offer a leadership alternative. And that leadership must begin with the selection of a flagbearer whose record, integrity, and experience match the scale of the crisis.
Dr. Ibrahim Bangura is a tested leader, a trained public policy expert, a proven peacebuilder, and above all, a unifier, within the APC and across the nation. He has worked on governance and education-related reforms. He lives and works in the education sector. He understands how to align vision with delivery, policy with impact. He brings to the table what Sierra Leone desperately needs: competence with compassion, vision with execution, and unity without compromise.
A Call to Action
To the people of Sierra Leone: You have seen the cost of bad governance. You have paid for it with your children’s future.
To APC delegates: You have a sacred duty to your party and to your country. Electing Dr. Ibrahim Bangura goes beyond a political decision, it is a patriotic responsibility. This moment demands a departure from politics as usual. Sierra Leone cannot afford another five years of empty slogans, of slow and inadequate subsidies, of irresponsible bureaucracy that exclude thousands of pupils from public exams. We must choose leadership that delivers. We must choose a future that includes everyone. We must elect a leader with the capacity to heal, unite and build. And to begin, we must choose Dr. Ibrahim Bangura.
