By Sahr
FREETOWN, Aug 31 (SALONE TIMES) –On the 28th August 2021, Teach for Salone held a graduation ceremony for its second cohort of graduates at Hill Valley Hotel Signal Hill, Freetown.
Deputy Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, politicians, educators and the local populace witnessed the convocation ceremony of Teachers from Teach For Salone.
TFSL is a non-profitable leadership development and education fellowship programme that seeks to attract, recruit and develop a cohort of future leaders with a passion for ending educational inequity (disparities in quality of education) in Sierra Leone.
The CEO Madam Josephine Saidu said “I think we have certified a number of very good teachers and I’m sure they will be contributing significantly to national development’’.
She added that the fellowship usually provide leadership training, coaching and mentorship to highly qualified university graduates and professionals from various disciplines.
‘’My team was challenged in placing fellows from the first cohort in hard to reach schools in rural communities,’’ she further added.
She stated that Teach for Sierra Leone was a journey that started in 2013 and that last year they placed their first set of one hundred fellows in five different districts across the country
She said this year they have trained over one hundred fellows who will be going out to the rural communities that are deprived of teachers.
She disclosed that over the years TFSL have been facing lot of challenges in financing the project, although the parent body, Teach for All and Africell SL, Plan International and government of Sierra Leone have been supportive.
She cited the lack of resources as her biggest problem, and that her dream is to increase the number of fellows in all the fourteen districts in Sierra Leone. ’’I will target Bo, Western Urban, Rural communities and Pujehun etc in placing the cohort’’ she said
The fellowship, she said is a two-year placement program in hard to reach to areas. She encouraged the fellows to be prepared and overcome the challenges, because their responsibility is to transform the lives of the children in these communities.
She concluded that TFSL is planning to have two thousand more fellows all over the country by 2025.
Deputy Minister of Basic and Senior School Education Madam Emily Gogra said the government is very determined to support all the fellows that will complete the two years placement program and will provide them Jobs and Teacher’s Certificate.
