*Education in Crisis – A Call to Rescue a Generation – Part Four – Education Matters
By Jarrah Kawusu-Konte
In a country where schools have become spaces of survival rather than sanctuaries of learning, Sierra Leone’s education system is quietly collapsing under the weight of seven years of neglect, data manipulation, political grandstanding, and inequality. Across districts and chiefdoms, children sit on broken benches, some under trees, others in overcrowded classrooms where chalkboards are cracked and teachers demoralised. The urban, rural divide is glaring. While a handful of city schools, mostly private ones, boast limited internet access and minimal resources, their rural counterparts often struggle for water, toilets or even qualified staff.
According to recent data from UNESCO and UNICEF, nearly 40% of children in Sierra Leone do not complete basic education. Teacher attrition rates are high due to low wages, lack of motivation and poor working conditions. Dropout rates, especially among girls, are on the rise, compounded by early pregnancies and child marriages. The curriculum, untouched by relevance, still churns out degrees that fail to match market demands, leaving young graduates with certificates but no skills, diplomas but no direction. The result is widespread frustration, a mental health crisis among students, and a dangerous drift toward disillusionment and despair.
This is the education crisis Dr Ibrahim Bangura refuses to ignore. As an accomplished scholar, an associate professor at the University of Sierra Leone’s Fourah Bay College and a 2024 Africa Oxford Fellow (AfOx) at the University of Oxford, Dr Bangura understands both the pain and the promise of education. He speaks as a technocrat and as a man who has spent over two decades in classrooms, across the world teaching, researching and mentoring. He has published extensively on education reform, human capital development and what he terms “knowledge justice”, a principle that insists education must be a tool of liberation, not frustration.
“Education saved my life,” he once told me. “I was raised in a modest home where books were prized and school was sacred. I remember the teachers who went unpaid yet never gave up on us. I remember the smell of old textbooks, the passion of a classroom where dreams were not mocked but nurtured. That experience made me, and I owe it to the next generation to give them the same fighting chance.”
Dr Bangura’s policy vision is bold and grounded. He proposes decentralised school governance that gives communities power and accountability. He advocates for public, private partnerships that modernise infrastructure, ensure transparent payrolls, decent wages and conditions of service; as well as those that expand access to digital tools. He champions performance-based incentives to motivate teachers, curriculum overhauls to meet the demands of a digital age, and learning hubs equipped with online resources, especially in underserved regions.
He is passionate about early childhood learning, knowing that the foundation of a nation is laid long before a child learns to read or write. He calls for investment in technical and vocational training to equip young people with practical, employable skills. And he believes in embedding digital literacy from the classroom to the community, to create a workforce that can thrive not only locally but globally.
This is more than policy for Dr Bangura, it is a mission. As a father, a professor, a patriot and a product of public schooling, he sees education as the golden thread that can heal broken systems, unite fractured communities and build a resilient, empowered Sierra Leone. Heal the decaying infrastructure, unite the dreams of rural and urban children, and build a future where minds are not shackled by circumstance but freed by opportunity. That is the message. That is the movement.
Dr Ibrahim Bangura’s lifelong dedication to knowledge, his global academic experience and his practical, data-driven solutions make him uniquely qualified to lead the rescue mission our education system so desperately needs. In a country where youth are more likely to hustle than hope, where classrooms echo with frustration rather than inspiration, his leadership promises a different rhythm, one of dignity, direction and dreams rekindled.
Let us not chain another generation to mediocrity. Let us support a leader who has walked the talk, taught the talk and is ready to transform it into action.
Let us start the task to heal, unite and build by getting Dr Ibrahim Bangura elected as the Flagbearer in the upcoming APC National Delegates’ Conference.
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Jarrah Kawusu-Konte is a communication Specialist, former Political Editor of the We Yone Newspaper (2003 – 2006) and former Communications Manager and Director of Communications at State House (2011 – 2018). Former APC MP candidate for Koinadugu District in 2002. A son of the soil, a believer in redemption, and a servant of hope.
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