President Kabbah Launches "SABABU" Education Project

President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has formally launched the SABABU Education Project in Kambia, District Headquarter town of the Kambia District in the Northern Province, kicking-off the implementation of the largest single investment ever in the history of the education sector in Sierra Leone.

The government of Sierra Leone had earlier obtained a grant from the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) for an Education Project and a loan and grant from the African Development Bank (ADB) toward the cost of the rehabilitation of Basic/Non-Formal Education and Vocational Skills training facilities.

SABABU, which means "opportunity" in common parlance, is a US$ 40m countrywide project tailored to address many of the problems affecting basic education as a consequence of the just-ended civil conflict. At the same time, the SABABU project is expected to assist Sierra Leone achieve some of its Education For All (EFA) goals. Within five years, the project plans to construct some 500 Primary Schools, 100 Junior Secondary Schools, 51 Technical and Vocational Centres covering all districts and chiefdoms in the country. It also incorporates a five-year period training package targeting ten thousand untrained and unqualified teachers, institutional strengthening as well as capacity building in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

Out of the sum of USD 40m, some USD 2.5m has been earmarked for the entire Kambia District programme. President Kabbah's launching of the project Friday as well as his turning of the sod for the first set of 30 schools to be built in Kambia , marked the beginning of his government's post war efforts to re-establish proper educational services nationwide and prepare the grounds for developing the sector further.

The project offers two types of grants - complete and partial grants. Complete grants schools will benefit from the construction of new classroom blocks, with provision for Principal's or Head teacher's office, a store, a toilet system and water well with hand pump or the repair and renovation of existing classrooms, which will also be furnished. Partial grant schools will benefit from all facilities and services provided to complete grant schools excepting civil works, furniture and School Management Committee training. However, some other provisions will include the supply of core textbooks for Mathematics, Social Studies, Language Arts and Integrated Science.

"As a Government we could not put money into the pockets of each and everyone. But we can give education and skills training to you and your children, which would allow you to create wealth of your own," President Kabbah told the people of Kambia, adding that "SABABU" is all about creating an enabling environment for people to grow and become independent."

Two service providers in education who have won SABABU project contracts to service Kambia District are Action Aid (SL) and Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). According to President Kabbah, they would be working on behalf of government, using government funds to rehabilitate and reconstruct Primary and Junior Secondary Schools, as well as provide cost free furniture, textbooks and related inputs for the children of Kambia.

However, while stressing government's confidence in the power of partnership with NGOs and local communities, the Head of State also encouraged service providers not to sideline the community people. "They should as a matter of fact enlist the services of our abundant local artisans and craftsmen," he said, underscoring government's avowed policy to ensure the involvement of local communities and elected representatives in planning, implementation and monitoring of all similar projects.

Also in a related development at the Kambia Court Barri, President Kabbah made a symbolic presentation of two sets of uniforms and games tunic, a year's school fees, a complete set of text and exercise books, one geometry set, pens, ruler and eraser, all of which every girl child who passes the National Primary School Education (NPSE) Certificate examinations is freely entitled to.

In his remarks earlier, the Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Dr. Alpha Tejan Wurie therefore encouraged parents to send their girl children to school so as to allow them take advantage of the unprecedented educational "SABABU" or opportunities offered to them now. He went on to note that children would shortly be compelled by law to go to school, failing which defaulting parents or school children would suffer unspecified consequencies.

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