To ensure that Sierra Leone meets Goal Four of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which states, ‘’Ensure quality education for all’’, In 2018, president Julius Maada Bio announced the Free Quality Education (FQE) program in Sierra Leone in a bid to have millions of Sierra Leonean kids have access to education as per their fundamental human rights. Since then, millions of children are now in public and government-assisted schools under the FQE flagship program. But there have been some challenges hindering the FQE, these challenges have succeeded in removing the ‘Q’ from the FQE, remaining ‘FE’. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the government decided to close down schools, universities, colleges, and other revenue-generated sectors to curtail the spread of the virus. This led to millions of school-going children sat at home, thus affecting their performances.
To ensure that Sierra Leone enjoys quality education and to ensure that the problem of youth unemployment is tackle, a young and vibrant Sierra Leonean, Massah Esther Nyally Bockarie together with her colleagues Ibrahim Bah and Muhktar created a platform, Easy Learning Services, to solve the problems affecting the education system in Sierra Leone, and not only that but also tackle the problem of youth unemployment. On May 23rd 2020, at the peak of the pandemic when schools in Sierra Leone were closed down by the government, Massah Esther Nyally Bockarie saw that many kids were at home not going to school. She saw the danger of school-going pupils sitting at home without going to school and how it could deter their academic performances.
“Well, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, I saw that lot of kids were at home without schools, while college students including me were also at home suffering from financial hardship. I felt that we could solve the problem and with my three friends we kick-started the idea.”
Massah Esther Nyally Bockarie speaking to The African Dream
Easy Learning Services runs a private tutorial service for pupils in primary one (class 1) to senior secondary three (SS3). Easy Learning Services also runs sponsored programs like ‘The School Next Door’ to provide teachers and tutors for pupils in rural areas and also grade B schools in Sierra Leone. In Sierra Leone, rural areas to be specific, pupils are finding it very difficult to learn and have access to quality education due to a lack of passionate and qualified teachers to mentor them. Easy Learning Services is solving this issue with ‘’The School Next Door Project’’.
‘’The School Next Door Project’’ is a project initiated by Easy Learning Services which started last year. It’s a project that was initiated to tackle the challenges teachers and pupils are facing. Many teachers in the rural areas of Sierra Leone don’t have access to major textbooks for teaching, whilst others don’t have the zest and passion to teach their pupils and make them the best of students. Some teachers lack the patience to complete the syllabus, others complete the syllabus without detailed teaching, and others are don’t have the know-how to create a conducive learning environment for their pupils; thus making these pupils lose interest in what they’re doing. With ‘’The School Next Door Project’’, Massah Esther Nyally Bockarie and her team are providing easy learning services to teachers and pupils, also provides them with learning materials and motivate them to do more.
The Easy Learning Services team went to Pendembu, Kailaihun, East of Sierra Leone to found out how rural schools are doing in terms of academic excellence. In Kailaihun, the team engaged two senior secondary schools: Ahmadiyya Islamic Secondary School and the Pendembu Vocational Secondary School. They found out that; some teachers in these schools don’t have access to important textbooks, two secondary schools sharing one accounting teacher, there’s no qualified full-time teacher for the pure science subjects Physics, Chemistry, and Further Maths, and teachers aren’t creating a conducive learning environment for their pupils.
Easy Learning Services through their donor partners have done an exceptional job to see that these press issues be solved to enhance quality education for all pupils and students. As a self-funded organization, they want to ensure that every pupil in Sierra Leone has access to quality education. But this would not happen without money. As Madiba once said, ”Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” To donate or sponsor Easy Learning Services, contact them at the following address:
Address: 27 Youyi Highway, Regent Village, Sierra Leone
Contact: +23275941709
Email: eeasylearningservices@gmail.com