Help us build our school

Construction of 4 classroom building in Devil hole community
Education in Sierra Leone has been plagued with numerous challenges over the years including
unequal access, increased rate of dropout especially of girls before reaching high school, poor
performance at the external examinations due to the inability to complete syllabuses in time among
other pedagogical barriers. 

These problems were exacerbated by the Ebola outbreak and covid-19
of 2014 and 2020, respectively. 

The former led to a dropout rate of … % and the later significantly
reduced the amount of time required to prepare well for public examinations. during these periods,
a range of interventions was instituted by the government and its partners to alleviate the impacts
on pupils as well as the system at large. 

among the interventions were the establishment of radio
teaching programs across the country, implementing psychosocial support [PSS] training for
teachers and other school authorities
In 2018, the government introduced 

The Free Quality and Compulsory Education policy that
removes tuition and related charges for all pupils in primary and secondary schools in the country.

The aim of this policy is to allow children from poor or low-income families and communities to
have unfettered access to quality education throughout the sierra leone. 

This policy has had
positive impacts, especially in terms of increased enrollment of pupils and the availability of
teaching and learning materials. 

According to a report by the UNFPA and of education, the
enrolment rate has increased by 144% since the introduction of the aforementioned policy. there
has also been evidence of increased interest among Sierra Leoneans to access education
irrespective of age and social status as seen in the courage of people beyond the ages of 60 taking
the national primary school examination for the first time ever in the country and also expressing
desires to continue into secondary school

This improvement has however precepted the emergence of another range of challenges for the
educational system. 

A key among this wave of challenges is the unavailability of adequate school
buildings to host the already growing number of pupils in urban and rural communities. In many
communities, a double- shift system is employed to ameliorate the problem while some have turned
to make-shift structures that do not only demotivate learners but even make learning impossible
during the raining season.

One such community is the Devil hole village, in the western rural district. this locality has a total
population of about a million, there is only a single primary school building that hosts four
class-rooms from primary one to five. 

According to the headteacher of the said school, they had to
turn down a total of 20 pupils in the last two years owing to the lack of adequate buildings and
classrooms to accommodate everyone that showed up for enrollment. 

As a charity that is focused
on reducing inequalities in social services within deprived communities, the GINDAPH
FOUNDATION through its national coordinator is soliciting funds to construct a four-classroom
building to provide for the remaining classes [primary five and six] before the start of the new
school year which starts in September 2021. 

In a meeting with the stakeholders two months ago,
The entire community has expressed commitment to supporting the project by providing the land,
labour and some local materials. Remember; even just a bag of cement in this
regard could change the future of a whole community!
Kindly help