Situation Room promotes increased access to quality learning for children in Sierra Leone
Working with partners to improve education services.
Magburaka – Flanked by a group of enthusiastic primary school pupils in a classroom at the Baptist Primary School in Magburaka, Tonkolili District, northern Sierra Leone, Daniel Lakoh, Manager of the Situation Room in the district, engaged them in an interesting discussion. Sitting on a desk with a digital tablet in one hand and a piece of paper in the other, amidst smiles, he posed a few questions to the pupils.
“Have you been coming to school every day?” he asked the children smiling, “And if for any reason you were not able to come to school in the past weeks let’s discuss and find solutions as we want to see every child in school every day.”
Low attendance among children in schools, especially in rural areas and early grades, has resulted in high repetition and dropout rates. Eight (8) per cent of children repeat grade one. This is partly attributed to inadequate monitoring, supervision, and data management to follow up on children who are not attending school.
UNICEF supported the establishment of the Situation Room during the Ebola epidemic to facilitate real-time data collection and information dissemination regarding affected families, teachers, and school-aged children. After the Ebola crisis, the support provided to the Situation Room was limited until 2020 when the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) assisted the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) to enhance its functionality. This support included providing laptops, printers, tablets, scanners, anti-virus software, and voltage stabilizers. Additionally, training was provided to Daniel and 37 other Situation Room staff on data collection, processing, analysis, and the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to support evidence-based decision-making, both in emergency and non-emergency contexts.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Situation Room served as a hub for real-time data collection and the dissemination of crucial information to communities and educators concerning the crisis and its response. The insights gathered from the Situation Room aided the government in monitoring the situation in real-time, guiding decision-making, allocating resources, monitoring progress, and promoting equity within the education sector.
“As Manager of the Situation Room, my day-to-day responsibilities include data collection and management; supporting schools to digitize their records with the use of tablets and making home and community visits to parents and other stakeholders to monitor educational developments,” said Daniel as he finished interacting with a mother and her daughter who has just returned home from school.
The Situation Room has contributed to revolutionizing the educational sector through promoting digital collection and reporting, and improved communication between national and district level stakeholders on the one hand and community and parents on the other hand.
“Pupils, especially those preparing for public examinations, now have access to practice question papers in digital formats using their cell phones, and this has contributed to an increase in the pass rates,” Daniel added.
“I feel confident and assured of a good quality education and future success for my daughter as the Situation Room is having a good impact on the educational development of our children,” revealed Salaymatu Sesay, mother of 12-year-old Adama Sesay, in Magburaka. “We would like to thank the donors and all stakeholders involved in its establishment.”
“Through the regular use of radio announcements, we motivate and encourage parents to send their children to the 59 Early Childhood Development centres that have been constructed with GPE support in several communities across the country to promote early learning and cognitive development of children between the ages of 3 and 5 years,” Daniel informed.
“Though I am sometimes challenged with irregular internet connectivity for the digital tablets, I love my job because it is helping decision-makers to make the right policy level decisions and design effective solutions to improve the education of children in Sierra Leone,” he added as he settled down to begin another day of work in the Situation Room.
