By Ibrahim Joenal Sesay
FREETOWN, July 29 (232News) – Community Action to Restore Lives (CARL) with partners like Education for All Sierra Leone Coalition, Action Aid Sierra Leone with support from Oxfam have engaged market women in the West end Urban and Rural Area of Freetown in a campaign titled the SPIKES Campaign.
SPIKES Campaign focuses on how government should regulate private schools and pay more premium on government and government assisted schools in the country.
Speaking to this medium, the officer CARL, Magdalene Jimmy said that by the survey they conducted in the country, there is a great disparity between private schools and government schools, for which she said that if one wants to acquire quality education, one will only have it in private schools.
She pointed that most parents can’t afford to send their children to private schools and that it is affecting the free quality education which is the flagship program of the SLPP led government as more children are being sent to government schools.
Madam Jimmy further highlighted that it’s for this reason CARL is championing the SPIKES campaign to continue to engage key stakeholders in the country and the government through the Ministry of Basic Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) to pay more attention to government schools in the country.
Commissioner Madiana Samba, the Executive Director of CARL stated that as a Civil Society Organization, they will continue to engage the government in influencing government policy for non-privatization of public schools which she said a new narrative is been established about privatization shadow to support partners to create a website for influencing purposes at national and local level.
Madam Samba further maintained that, CARL as an organization has done a website (www.restorelives.org.sl), which she said works is still ongoing with the IT support team of uploading photos as activities are being undertaken.
Some market women in the western Urban and Rural part of Freetown signed up to the campaign for government to see the need to regulate private schools and give more support to government/assisted schools in the country.
