Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is a country in West Africa that is bordered by Guinea to the northeast, Liberia to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest. There are about six million people that live in Sierra Leone. The capital is Freetown which is also the largest city in Sierra Leone. Their main language is English which I was surprised about but it is only really used in the government. However the Kiro language is usually the language that the people communicate with. This country is mainly a Muslim country with a little bit of Christian minority and is also one of the most religiously tolerant countries in the world. The word Sierra Leoa means Lioness Mountains and in 1462 a Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra visited the area naming it for the landscape around Freetown. It gained independence in 1961 and became a republic country in 1971.

Sierra Leone Education has a “6-3-3-4 education system” which was introduced in 1993 that consist of nine years of basic education. At the end of six years of primary education, all students sit for the National Primary School Examination (NPSE). If successful, they proceed to junior secondary education for three years and then sit for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). Successful BECE candidates proceed to three years of senior secondary school, at the end of which they sit for the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). If you fail the BECE the student can either take it again or get a job. If they pass the student may go on to a university to get a four year degree. One thing I thought was interesting was that the government pays the examination fee for all students in government assisted schools who take each exam. The government does this so that all students have a chance to move onto a better or more education and takes the pressure of payment off of the parents or other people that the students live with. This way all students have an equal chance to get a good education in Sierra Leone.

The main reasons put forward by the perpetrators of the civil war were lack of social-economic opportunities overall, lack of access by many citizens to what economic life there was, and tyrannical political rule. Today, Sierra Leone enjoys a liberalized economy and relative peace. The Sierra Leone Civil War was from 1991-2002. It began on March 23 1991 as the Revolutionary United Front attempted to overthrow the government. This war involved multiple ethnic groups and throughout this ten year war over 50,000 people died. More than half a million people fled to nearby countries to get away from this war because it was so unsafe. Because of the war the government stopped paying civil servants and teachers. The war caused the government to slowly disintegrate as a result of the political class. The country had been compromised by the government and people felt that nothing in the society was going to change because of political issues happening in the country.