Sierra Leone’s National Out of School Children (OOSC) Strategy
Owner: | Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Sierra Leone |
Version: | vDRAFT8 — 5 April 2022 |
A.1. Background and purpose of the strategy 4
A.3. Context: legal and policy frameworks 5
A.4. Context: Barriers to access and the need for an OOSC Strategy 7
C.0.0. Action: What is to be done 11
C.1. Create safe schools and safe communities 12
C.2. Demand for education: Inform and support decisions to prioritise education 27
C.3. Systems Strengthening: Join up and resource systems to fulfil all children’s rights 32
D.1. Coordination structure 34
Figure 1: Key barriers to education in Sierra Leone 8
Figure 2: Theory of change diagram 10
Figure 3: Organogram of Implementation Governance Arrangements 34
CSE Comprehensive Sexuality Education
CWC Child Welfare Committees
FQSE Free Quality School Education
MBSSE Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education
MoGCA Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs
MoSW Ministry of Social Welfare
OOSC Out-of-School Children—school age children currently out of school whether they have never been to school, dropped out, or absent five days in month
SGBV Sexual and Gender Based Violence
SMC School Monitoring Committee
SQARM Directorate of School Quality Assurance and Resource Management
TSC Teaching Service Commission
This National Out of School Children (OOSC) Strategy has been developed with cross-sectoral government support in order to improve access to education for the long-run development of young Sierra Leoneans. It builds on a national legal and policy framework1 which sets out various rights and initiatives in order to boost access to education and other services.
The OOSC Strategy complements the National Policy on Radical Inclusion in Schools2 by specifically addressing the inclusion needs of OOSC. Through this strategy, OOSC refers to children currently out of school whether they have never been to school, dropped out, or are regularly truant. The strategy addresses OOSC, those at risk of becoming OOSC, and those re-entering formal education. The strategy is underpinned by the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education’s (MBSSE) national study of Out of School Children.3
This strategy is informed by an in-depth national study on Out of School Children (OOSC)4 from data collected in 2020 and 2021, comprising both a substantive literature review alongside primary research with children, parents, teachers, community organisations, NGOs, and government representatives. It sought to better understand the scale of the problem of access, as well as identify and unpack precise barriers to access through the lived experience of children, with a particular focus on those faced by girls and children with disabilities. The study recommendations were validated in May 2021 and discussed at workshops throughout year.
In the development of this strategy, key issues—including the validated recommendations identified by stakeholders—were discussed in a series of workshops in order to prioritise and identify specific interventions to address the key barriers. Key stakeholders from across government and civil society were identified for these meetings and organised into thematic groups to address key intervention areas. The thematic groups included: social protection, children with disabilities, adolescent mothers, behaviour change, child protection, teachers and training, learning quality, school supply and infrastructure, data and coordination.
The groups identified and prioritised key interventions which were fed back following the workshops, informing the strategy’s actions.
Sierra Leone’s statutory framework outlines a comprehensive package of rights to children regarding their access to education, their treatment and protection, and it assigns corresponding duties to their parents, caregivers, and teachers as well as Government of Sierra Leone ministries, departments and agencies. Further, the policy framework purposefully sets out an equity-based approach, highlighting the particular needs of vulnerable or marginalised learners in order to uphold these rights. This strategy addresses current gaps in how these are being upheld and applied by responsible structures and actors.
Legislative framework
Enshrined in the Education Act 20045 is the right of every citizen to nine years of basic (defined as primary and junior secondary) education, “free to the extent specified in statutory instruments,” currently banning tuition fees. This is compulsory and a parent or caregiver who fails to send their child to school shall be subject to a fine or imprisonment.6 It goes on to add that, ‘A child who persistently fails to attend schools for basic education shall be treated as if he were a juvenile in need of care under paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of Section 27 of the Children and Young Persons Act.’7
The 2007 Child Rights Act reaffirms the right of every child to an education,8 and outlaws mistreatment of children with disabilities, highlighting their particular right to special care, education and training.9 It adds that no child shall be subjected to exploitative labour where deprived of their education or health,10 although they may conduct ‘light work’ from 13.11 Schooling is no longer compulsory after the age of 15, when children may legally leave school and work full-time.12 The Child Rights Act is under review to make explicit Female Genital Mutilation and child marriage as unlawful harmful practices and prohibit corporal punishment in all settings. The rights of children with disabilities are additionally enshrined in the Persons with Disability Act 2011, also currently being revised, providing them the right to free education and protection from discrimination in education.13
Legislation enshrines the protection of children from different forms of sexual violence and abuse, covering all potential perpetrators including family, teachers, or people in positions of power and community influence as well as those unknown to the victim.14
Although the minimum legal age for marriage15 and consensual sexual activity16 is 18 years, inconsistent legislation offers a loophole permitting children to be married with a parent or guardian’s consent or the guardian of the prospective spouse, without any minimum age guarantee.17
The National Commission for Children was established by the Child Rights Act18 to implement the Act including to decentralise responsibility for ensuring educational access and supply in rural areas.19 Part IV of the Act establishes the statutory functions, composition and responsibilities of Child Welfare Committees (CWC) at village and chiefdom levels, comprising community members working to ‘advance the enjoyment of the rights of the child’ in the village and to coordinate these efforts in the chiefdom.20 Designed to play a key role in child rights governance and to respond to protection incidents, in practice, however, CWC are not widely established, with many Chiefdoms lacking one altogether, while those in place are not resourced.21
Policy framework
The Government of Sierra Leone’s 2018 Free Quality School Education (FQSE) policy abolishing tuition fees in all government-supported secondary-level education (in addition to primary- and junior secondary-levels) was underpinned by significant financial investment from the national budget.22
That removal of one of several barriers to education was further bolstered by the 2020 overturn of a ban on pregnant girls attending school. Furthermore, the 2021 launch of National Policy on Radical Inclusion in Schools23 reflected a shift to proactively address inequity, in order that the increased government expenditure is able to benefit the most marginalised children—particularly girls and children with disabilities, who are more likely to be out of school.24 25 These recent policy developments reflect a marked shift in stated intention: to purposefully include children historically overlooked in the school environment and pursue equity in access and outcome over equality in treatment. Despite this major milestone in enrolment, the root causes of being out of school remain, as they are deeply entrenched not only in system functioning, but also in norms.
The National Policy on Radical Inclusion in Schools primarily seeks to address barriers associated with service provision at the school in order to make a more inclusive environment to prevent drop-out and serve as a ‘pull-factor’ to draw more learners. Other policies are to address a number of those barriers in the left-hand column of diagram 1, below.
Other government policies and documents referenced here include the Sexual and Gender-Based Violence National Referral Protocols (being updated in 2022), the draft School Health Policy and the Assistive Technologies Policy and Strategic Plan (2021).
As such, the OOSC Strategy is designed to fit ‘under’ the National Policy on Radical Inclusion in Schools, informed by the same principles and similar policy objectives, and has informed the Implementation Plan Radical Inclusion, yet remains a complementary and separate strategy document focused as a particular subset of this policy area.
There was an increase of 48% in Senior Secondary School enrolment after the introduction of the FQSE programme,26 broadly with gender parity in that enrolment growth.27 However, the breakdown of the Gross Enrolment Rate28 and qualitative data highlights that inequitable access persists, particularly along demographic (gender and disability), socio-economic and geographical lines.29
Critically, many of the barriers discussed below fall outside of the mandate of MBSSE and the education sector to address and so the OOSC Strategy requires a joint effort of various ministries, departments and agencies responsible also for child well-being, social protection and health. It is a multifaceted issue that cuts across sectors due to its basis in social norms.
Because of the issue’s inherent complexity, a degree of buy-in is required from ministries and departments including Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs (MoGCA), Ministry of Social Welfare (MoSW), National Commission for Social Action, National Secretariat for the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy and Child Marriage, Ministry of Health and Sanitation.
Barriers to education manifest both in service delivery (supply-side) and within homes and communities (demand-side).
Figure 1: Key barriers to education in Sierra Leone.30
On the supply side, the OOSC study found that these most notably include a lack of sufficient schools, trained teachers—for children with disability in particular—access to required materials, devices, facilities and supportive teachers.
On the demand-side, the most commonly experienced barrier is economic—be it direct costs associated with school attendance or other indirect or opportunity costs, limiting a child’s options to reliably attend school. The economic barrier intersects the child’s own physical and emotional wellbeing at home. Many cited their experience of having lost one or both parents, of extreme household poverty, or of otherwise being highly vulnerable, without reliable care for not attending.
The impact of early pregnancy or marriage was also found in qualitative consultations to reduce girls’ access, even after the overturn of the ban on pregnant learners.
What this study highlighted is that some of the most obstructive barriers to access stem from the household or community-levels (demand-side) as a result of social and cultural norms, in particular gender norms and, as such, supply-side interventions at the school level are unlikely to fully address those.
The strategy is grounded in upholding MBSSE’s four guiding principles—Universal Access, Comprehensive Safety, Radical Inclusion, and Quality Learning and Teaching—with respect to out-of-school children. These principles aim for every child to complete the full education cycle with outcomes improving.
Children from vulnerable and excluded groups are actively enabled to enter and remain in school until completion. School is a place of dignity, safety, and respect for all—systematically reducing cultural, policy and physical barriers to education. Finally, Sierra Leone has developed the institutional structures (such as child welfare committees and school management committees), instructional frameworks (such as updated alternative education curricula), building on staff capacity, to support the safety and inclusion of children in their community and schools.
Adapting from the National Policy for Radical Inclusion in Schools, the strategy is built on the theory of change below.
The outcomes are addressed in sections as follows:
There is a sufficient supply of accessible, safe schools & environment that provides inclusive quality learning for children
Households have the information, attitudes and resources that they need to prioritise education for children, increasing demand
Joined-up systems that are in place and resourced at all levels provide supportive structures needed to fulfil the rights of all children
Not one column of logic on the diagram can stand alone: without addressing supply, demand and systems, the endstate cannot be achieved.
Figure 2: Theory of change diagram.31
The following section shows the actions to be taken, the rationale and planning guidance for their implementation. They are split into those immediately available to be implemented within resource constraints and those that require an uplift in resources.
The structure is:
Section 1. Supply of Child Protection and Education services: Create safe schools and safe communities
Immediate action: where costs of implementation may be borne by existing structures or ongoing programmes. A change in standard operating procedures may be necessary in these cases
Long term action: where significant time and resources are required
Section 2. Demand for Education: Inform and support decisions to prioritise education
Section 3. Systems strengthening: Join up and resource systems to fulfil the rights of all children
Each action is expanded upon as required to guide the implementation towards OOSC. This takes the form below:
Objective: The intent of the action
Approach: How the action’s components will address OOSC
Responsible organisations: The government bodies to be held accountable
More planning guidance is added where necessary to direct the action towards supporting OOSC.
Objective: To encourage and directly support all currently out of school children to return to school sustainably
Approach:
Review of the efficiency of existing and past programmes including safe spaces, technical and vocational courses
Prioritise new and strengthen existing Community Learning Centres in hard to reach areas
Use existing teachers in the schools trained in non-formal education curriculum
Target expectant and parent learner, overaged students, children with disabilities and other OOSC particularly those who are economically marginalised and with intersecting vulnerabilities
Responsible organisations: Non-Formal Education Directorate, MBSSE
Objective:
To establish quality inclusive alternative education that is equitably accessible for those children currently out of school and who do not wish to or cannot feasibly join mainstream education
Approach:
Enforce compulsory registration in alternative education, if not in formal education under the age of 16 (legal school leaving age is 1532)
Detail how to achieve consistent and equitable distribution of service delivery in a Non-Formal Education policy
Review of the efficacy of existing and past programmes including safe spaces, technical and vocational courses, and community learning centres
Specify who is to use non-formal curricula resources for consistent delivery across service delivery (update these per Action 1.1.3.)
Include guidelines and minimum standards of time and quality on non-formal education service delivery, including for vocational subjects
Responsible organisations: Non-Formal Education Directorate, MBSSE and Ministry of Technical and Higher Education
Objective:
To encourage and directly support all currently out of school children to return to school sustainably
To provide children out of school with the knowledge and skills necessary to make informed decisions, enter and negotiate within healthy relationships, and develop informed family values
Approach:
Update the non-formal education numeracy curriculum
Turn the income generation curriculum into entrepreneurship curriculum in order to appeal to a broader audience of learners
Strengthen Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the non-formal education sector including through use of the National Life Skills Manual (2018)
Responsible organisations: Non-Formal Education Directorate, MBSSE
Objective: To provide a route for schools, households and communities to secure assistance for children not enrolled or at risk of drop-out, for example, if a child is working for a caregiver or living alone
Approach:
Report non-attending students, class teachers to report to School Leader and SMCs when a child has unauthorised absence for follow-up
Popularise the 8060 toll-free reporting line
Situation Room ensure that the line is answered at a caller’s first attempt
Produce reporting tool with at least two channels
Harmonise Police Family Support Unit, Don Bosco, TSC, MBSSE report lines with specified reporting procedures to and from each mechanism
Implement a process to link users to the Sexual Gender Based Violence National Referral Protocols and to the Anti-Corruption Commission grievance redress mechanism
Train School Management Committees on their roles, and to follow up on complaints
Target:
System users: community members, teachers and students
Beneficiaries: in and out of school children
Responsible organisations: EMIS and Situation Room, MBSSE. Supported by: School Management Committees
Objective:
To provide girls and boys in and out of school with the support, confidence and skills necessary to make informed decisions, enter and negotiate within healthy relationships, understand their rights and develop informed family values
To reduce the risk of sexual violence and unintentional pregnancy
To increase reporting of sexual and gender-based violence
Approach:
Train payroll teachers in-service as mentors, and provide those teachers the opportunity to start the pre-service guidance counselling training
Allocate a teacher with the guidance counsellor training to each school
Assign teachers to the mentor or guidance counsellor roles based on the soft-skills and empathy to perform the role
Teach both girls and boys about their own rights and each other’s rights to empower them, led by guidance counsellor or mentor
Create guidance clinics, a private space in the school for counselling
Lead community dialogues through training a volunteer from the SMC to lead men’s and boys’ clubs
Develop peer support networks for children with disabilities
Deliver health and sexuality training and resources to mentors including the Sexual and Gender Based Violence National Reporting Protocol
Mentors and guidance counsellors actively look for at risk OOSC and raise concerns with teachers of children that are at risk of dropping out
Create formal links to related networks and structures in the community
Collaborate with MoSW to integrate Social Workers to serve as guidance counsellors in schools, and provide them in-service training34
Responsible organisations: Gender Unit, Guidance and Counselling Units, MBSSE. Supported by: MoSW and National Secretariat for the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy
Objective:
To provide girls and boys in school with the information necessary to make informed decisions, enter and negotiate within healthy relationships, understand their rights and develop informed family values
To delay the age of sexual debut, adolescent boys and girls have the knowledge, skills and confidence to avoid unplanned pregnancies
To reduce the risk of sexual violence and unintentional pregnancy
To increase reporting of sexual and gender-based violence
Approach:
Teach teachers the benefits of CSE to the learner
Develop CSE teaching and learning materials
Train in-service teachers on the content and pedagogical techniques necessary to implement the curriculum by Academic Year 2023-24
Include resources developed within the non-formal sector (Action 1.1.2.)
Responsible organisations: Directorate of Research and Curriculum, MBSSE. Supported by: TSC and National Strategy for the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy
Objective: To empower girls through physical activity
Approach:
Teach girls self-defence classes, with explicit links to empowerment
Encourage participation in team sports
Target basic education students
Responsible organisations: Directorate of Research and Curriculum and School Health and Nutrition Unit, MBSSE. Supported by: Ministry of Youth Affairs
Objective: To reduce the cost of learning in schools by eliminating illegitimate fees
Approach:
Stop schools from collecting illegal extra charges from school children, for example, toilet roll, soap, Physical Health Education money
Sensitise the public to what FQSE tuition support to schools covers
Responsible organisations: Directorate of Policy and Planning, Directorate of School Quality Assurance and Resource Management, MBSSE
Objective: To reduce the cost of uniforms as a barrier to school by standardisation
Approach:
Abolish compulsion to buy school uniforms or materials at the school
Ensure other school materials like badges, ties, sports t-shirt are sold at affordable prices
Simplify the school uniforms to a select few colours in government and government-supported schools to uniforms that can be readily provided by the markets so that the cost of uniforms is reduced by competition
Responsible organisations: Directorate of Policy and Planning, SQARM, MBSSE
Objective: To enable adolescent mothers to return to school
Approach:
Provide training package on positive parenting developed for use by health care workers, social workers, community members
Enhance consultative processes with local community leaders to establish by-laws around childcare provision for adolescent mothers
Map existing childcare provisions which can be leveraged and international best practice
Study to determine the most appropriate provision by geography (rural/urban), culturally and cost-effectively
Community creche or a formal creche in the school
Feasibility study considering child safeguarding and protection
Develop and implement a strategy for childcare provision
Responsible organisations: Gender Unit, MBSSE. Supported by: MoSW, Ministry of Health and Sanitation, MoGCA
Objective:
To ensure adolescent mothers have the knowledge and skills to make positive health decisions enabling them to return to and remain in school
To enable adolescent mothers to take care of their children without resorting to negative coping mechanisms
Approach:
Provide a training package for guidance counsellors on how to support adolescent mothers’ return to school (in conjunction with Action 1.2.5.)
Provide training for school mentors. Where possible mentors should build on existing systems within the school, such as guidance counsellors (in accordance with Action 1.1.5.)
Provide corresponding training packages for safe spaces operators
Align training packages with Comprehensive Sexuality Education material including positive parenting, and the National Community Health Worker policy
Responsible organisations: Gender Unit, Early Childhood Development Unit, MBSSE. Supported by: National Secretariat for the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy, MoSW
Objective:
To increase use of family planning commodities, reducing adolescent pregnancy
To reduce stock-outs of family planning commodities
To increase public acceptance of the use of family planning commodities
Approach:
Increase the provision of modern methods of contraception to primary Service Delivery Points
Provide training package for health care workers on National Standards for Adolescent and Young People Friendly Health Services
Remove the age of medical consent for family planning of 18, replace with guidance for medical practitioners to assess Gillick competence36 to determine whether the young person is able to consent
Initiate multi-layered public information campaign on preventing adolescent pregnancy through the use of family planning, through media nationally
Responsible organisations: Ministry of Health and Sanitation. Supported by: National Secretariat for the Reduction of Adolescent Pregnancy and Child Marriage, MoGCA, MoSW, School Health and Nutrition Unit and Gender Unit, MBSSE
Objective: To provide spaces and resources for children to continue their education where a child is in a facility or institution unable to access a school for more than one day
Approach:
Provide a space at hospitals, detention facilities, correctional centres for learning resources
Provide play labs for early childhood development
Provide a set of national curriculum textbooks
Teach at facilities with a roaming coordinator
Responsible organisations:
Early Childhood Development Unit and Non-Formal Education Directorate, MBSSE to coordinate
MoSW, Family Support Unit, Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of Health and Sanitation to implement in their sectors
Directorate of Policy and Planning, Gender Unit, MBSSE to provide Teaching and Learning Materials
Objective: To retain at risk children in school
Approach:
Identify and mitigate risks to individuals vulnerable to drop-out by preparing the students and teachers on enrolment
Produce a plan for effective integration with guidance for teachers
Designate a school focal point to consider requirements for catch up classes
Give guidance to new/returning pupils, including an exercise supported by teachers or counsellors to map out a plan of aspirations, identify risk factors for drop out and specify support structures to engage with to prevent this
Make these materials available alongside accelerated learning programmes
Target children that have previously been out of school, or returning from extended absence
Responsible organisations: Non-Formal Education Directorate, MBSSE. Supported by: SQARM, MBSSE
Objective: To increase access to schools to children with disabilities and children with impairments
To better identify children with disabilities
To identify children requiring onward referral
To support government’s prioritisation of devices
Approach:
Pilot a screening tool in schools at enrolment and in the community
Align the tool with a nationally standardised disability assessment system
Train teachers and SMC members to be able to identify children with disability
Train health professionals on the screening tool
Deploy to communities to include those not screened in school
Record in an Education Management Information System, potentially reporting via the One Tablet Per School project
Use the assessment to support teachers with template individual learning plans
Responsible organisations: Ministry of Health and Sanitation lead on assessment system, MoSW lead on access to rights, Special Needs Unit and School Health and Nutrition Unit, MBSSE lead on in-school assessments. Supported by: National Commission for Persons with Disabilities
Objective: To increase access to schools to children with disabilities and children with impairments
Approach:
Create linkages between schools and community-based rehabilitation programmes through SMCs
Conduct feasibility study for pooling devices (such as spectacles or chairs with arms to improve balance) at district offices
Work with the National Assistive Device Programme and National Rehabilitation Programme to provide assistive devices37
Responsible organisations: Special Needs Unit, MBSSE. Supported by: Ministry of Health and Sanitation, MoSW, National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, Council of Paramount Chiefs
Objective:
To ensure all new school constructions incorporate accessibility into their core design
To improve facilities at existing schools
Approach:
Provide physical accessibility consisting of appropriate shallow ramps, handrails, accessible toilets, furniture, lighting, seating
Review structural adaptations required in existing schools. It is recommended that adaptations are prioritised using more than one data set including MICS 2017 data on the national distribution of children with functional difficulties aged two and upwards
Conduct environmental assessments to ensure that schools are accessible and inclusive. School Quality Assurance Officers to report to District Education Committees
Responsible organisations: SQARM, Special Needs Unit, Gender Unit, Directorate of Policy and Planning, MBSSE and MoSW lead. Supported by: Ministry Technical Higher Education, District Council and Chiefdom Education Committees, TSC, National Commission for Persons with Disability
Objective:
To make welcome children with disabilities in education
Approach:
Provide sensitisation and skills training to educational staff on their requirement to support children living with disabilities with their activities of daily living including feeding and hygiene needs
Check that schools are not rejecting any child with disabilities. Chiefs to coordinate checks with SMCs38
Support in exams for those with difficulty writing
Make teaching and learning materials into accessible formats
Consider safeguarding requirements in individual learning plans
Encourage by-laws to firstly report and secondly support children with disability in each chiefdom
Registering all children via the screening tool (Action 1.2.6.)
Stop stigmatisation and harmful practices
Responsible organisations: Special Needs Unit and SQARM, Directorate of Non-Formal Education, MBSSE and MoSW lead. Supported by: Ministry of Technical and Higher Education, District Council and Chiefdom Education Committees, TSC
Objective: To provide specialised schooling so that all children access primary school education within their region even when precluded from mainstream schools
Approach:
Provide the classroom space for Special Needs Education in accordance with the School Infrastructure and Catchment Area Planning Policy 2021
Refer children to a school that can accommodate and respond to their needs where necessary
Responsible organisations: Special Needs Unit, MBSSE and MoSW. Supported by: National Commission for Persons with Disabilities
Objective: To reduce the number of children leaving home, travelling to attend SSS, in turn, to improve transition rates from JSS
Approach: Use the School Infrastructure and Catchment Area Supply Planning Policy 2021 to prioritise school building and expansion with needs-based analysis
Responsible organisations: SQARM, Directorate of Educational Programmes and Services, MBSSE. Supported by: Ministry of Works, Ministry of Lands, National Commission for Social Action, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic Development
Objective: To increase the quality of schools by regulating and resourcing them with funds and qualified teachers
Approach:
Map unapproved schools' needs through data collection to prioritise
Review the approval processes for unapproved schools as MBSSE has committed to in the Radical Inclusion Policy within budget
Enable correct posting of payroll teachers who often teach at community schools while on a government-supported school payroll
Responsible organisations: Deputy Chief Education Officer, MBSSE
Objective: To reduce the number of children dropping out of school due to distance and to increase safety of children on the way to school
Approach:
Review past and current transport provision interventions to establish most suitable transport options in consultation with children, caregivers and communities
Repair stock of existing busses, improving maintenance routine
Prioritise hard to reach areas where the private sector fails to provide sufficient transport
Ensure proper security vetting, training standards for transport providers
Responsible organisations: Ministry of Local Governance and Rural Development, District Councils, Directorate of Policy and Planning, SQARM, MBSSE, Ministry of Transport and Aviation
Objective: To reduce the number of children unable to return to school to sit WASSCE
Approach: Increase the validity of BECE certificates to five years, from three, to increase the number of students returning to complete education
Responsible organisations: Directorate of Research and Curriculum, Directorate of Educational Programmes and Services, MBSSE
Objective:
To distribute qualified teachers more equitably, to improve quality education in rural communities
To retain teachers in rural schools for more effective teaching
Approach:
Understand the areas hardest to retain based on teacher data, also informed by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation retention allowance methodology on hard to retain areas39
Provide basic incentives to teachers, including non-monetary40
Provide training and other continuous professional development opportunities
Provide teacher accommodation in the areas hardest to retain
Responsible organisations: TSC. Supported by: Directorate of Educational Programmes and Services, MBSSE and Ministry of Health and Sanitation
Objective: To increase quality education and teacher retention in rural areas
Approach:
Map the volunteer workforce in government schools, community schools and other community learning spaces to understand their qualifications
Review training needs to consider whether and how to recruit and regularise them, produce training needs report annually
Provide training to fill the identified gaps for teachers already working in rural schools
Provide scholarships and Teacher Training Institution distance learning courses for rural teachers, with consideration for individual’s access to resources
Establish peer support networks for teachers, with support for school leaders to create reflective practice41
Responsible organisations: TSC. Supported by: MBSSE, Ministry of Technical and Higher Education
Objective: To create an inclusive and representative teaching workforce where female teachers and teachers with disabilities are proportionately represented at all teaching and school levels
Approach:
Research to understand why there are fewer women teachers, and to understand the impact of scholarships for women at Teacher Training Institutes
Promote teaching as a career for women and persons with disabilities
Celebrate and promote female teachers and teachers with disabilities as role models and publicise their stories
Provide full/partial scholarships at Teacher Training Institutions for women and persons with disabilities
Implement gender quotas on enrolment to Teacher Training Institutions
Recruit female teachers and teachers with disabilities working in community schools
Provide additional retention allowances for female teachers and teachers with disabilities
Responsible organisations: TSC. Supported by: Special Needs Unit and Gender Unit, MBSSE and Teacher Training Institutions
Objective: To reduce and address incidents of teacher misconduct such as taking unapproved leave, illicit charges, and inappropriate behaviour including sexual exploitation
Approach:
Develop a clear and actionable process to fairly enforce the sanctions and disciplinary measures listed in the Code of Conduct42
Ensure all teachers have signed the Teachers’ Code of Conduct
Publicise the code of conduct with communities for community accountability
Publicise 8060 toll-free line for pupils and public to report
Ensure investigations into reported incidents of misconduct are recorded on the teacher’s record on the Teacher Records Management system.43 Additional permissions levels may be required
Introduce a digitised Teacher’s Attendance Monitoring system (see Action 1.2.22.)
Responsible organisations: TSC lead. Supported by: MBSSE specialist inputs, SQARM
Objective: To train teachers pre-service to affect the values of radical inclusion
Approach:
Inclusive education training to ensure every newly qualified teacher (at each educational level) has the skills to work with children of all abilities and vulnerabilities, and to identify special learning requirements and potential solutions
Train all teachers pre-service in core modules to assess, and to respond to, the needs of children with disabilities in their schools through understanding individual requirements
Train all teachers to use the Toolkit for Enabling Inclusive Learning (TEIL) and to recognise the range of barriers
Provide targeted training for teachers to specialise in special needs education (such as sign language) as in-service training
Discrimination and stigma prevention training to ensure teachers understand the long-term effects of corporal punishment and psychological abuse44
Train all school staff on how to actively reduce discrimination and stigma among pupils
Cover alternative means of discipline and the psychological impact of flogging
Enforcement of a strict no flogging/caning policy in schools and link teachers to the Reducing Violence in Schools Guide
Develop training videos/ sessions for current teachers, school heads and administrators on how to provide an inclusive learning environment
Responsible organisations: TSC lead. Supported by: Ministry of Technical and Higher Education, Teacher Training Institutes, Sierra Leone Teachers Union, MBSSE
Objective: To achieve the equitable, quality provision of teaching services
Approach:
Work in line with the National Teacher Deployment Policy45
Map community and school Special Educational Needs data
Deploy teachers accounting for their spoken language(s) to support those children that have difficulty with their Krio or English
Capture teachers’ qualifications, teaching areas, and relevant training
Responsible organisations: TSC. Supported by: EMIS, Directorate of Research and Curriculum and Directorate of Policy and Planning, MBSSE and MoSW
Objective: To improve quality and detail of data for more effective targeting of approaches
Approach:
Review the use of Washington Group questions in the Sierra Leonean context, to understand the most appropriate way to collect disability data
Disaggregate all surveys down to the level of individuals; if collecting personal data, they are to include age and disability questions
Responsible organisations: Statistics Sierra Leone. Supported by: all government bodies
Objective: To identify at-risk students, and improve service delivery, building links to other systems to identify and target OOSC
Approach:
Use existing up-to-date data to create a baseline national dataset and mapping on OOSC
Develop a schools database that holds in (near) real-time: school coordinates, editable school data linked to pupil enrolment and attendance down to the level of individuals
Data security must be considered at all stages of development and as a minimum: database access and change logs, strong password enforcement, accountability for hardware safety, encrypted database, limited storage of data on local devices, not collecting children’s biometrics, different access levels in accordance with data protection legislation, and reducing the number access points to the system
Use as a single reference point for other education data, for example, the Teacher Records Management System and the Annual School Census so that data is linked to a trusted source and is therefore comparable between surveys, improving opportunity for longitudinal study
Implement a pupil attendance monitoring system that
Gathers annual learner enrolment and tracks individual children’s day-to-day attendance against enrolment throughout their school career
Select a practicable life-long Unique ID for students, which stays with the learner as they transition across academic years and between schools
Support monitoring of children and create referral pathways for additional follow-up case management support if and when children drop-out, linking to child protection systems
Provide continuous data on drop-out rates including when and where they occur to support the development and evaluation of strategies and programmes to address them
Dashboard showing school and community OOSC performance
Collect parents’ contact details to aid follow-up for students that have dropped out or have poor attendance
Flag children regularly missing school to the school Leaders for further referral or direct action
Present and systematically share data on learning outcomes, gender and marginalisation to assist programme targeting
Capture data of all enrolled pupils to enable the government to assign school subsidies based on data with higher levels of assurance. Capture marginalisation factors upon enrolment
Introduce teacher attendance monitoring to ensure teachers recruited to work in rural areas remain in rural areas
Reward punctual and high-performing teachers, for example using the national teacher awards system
Sanction teachers who abandoned their post or have prolonged unapproved absence (see Action 1.2.18. for more detail)
Feasibility assessment of long-term extension beyond government and government-supported schools to community schools
Produce reports to alter incorrect information in the payroll
Responsible organisations: EMIS, MBSSE. Supported by: TSC, National Commission for Children, West African Examinations Council, Accountant General to implement payroll changes
Objective: To enable schools and communities to collaborate to achieve 100% enrolment
Approach:
Pilot scheme to provide school clusters or communities with additional resources for achieving 100% enrolment
Provide structure for schools to collaborate with the community to enrol students, through CWC or in the short run SMCs
Establish the necessary data on the Education Management Information System
Support their final year learners to enrol in the next school
Responsible organisations: Directorate of Policy and Planning, SQARM, Gender Unit, MBSSE. Supported by: MoGCA, Statistics Sierra Leone, Ministry of Finance, District Councils
The actions for this outcome discuss how we increase and enable families’ and communities’ demand for education.
Objective:
To improve the value attached to educating all community members, including girls and children with disability
To reduce protection risks for children at home and in schools
Approach:
Use multiple channels, to include national and local radio stations and community dialogues, with traditional leadership, for both men and women
Work with traditional and religious leaders to ensure messages permeate
Develop communications effective for those without literacy
Audiences:
Girls and children with disability must know their rights
Children encouraged to support their peers, mitigating stigma
Parents and schools must know their obligations
Encourage schools to celebrate an anti-bullying week, with school club discussions on discrimination
Increase the value of education
Provide guidance on how parents can actively support their children’s education through SMCs: early opportunities for critical thinking improve long term attitudes to education
Include the topics below in key messages:
Education increases employment and earning opportunities for all
Parents must send children to school: not sending children to school daily is illegal, there are sanctions for flouting the policy
Parents education improves nutrition and health of their children
Gender specific messaging: If a woman is educated, she is better able to access her rights and act within her community
Disability specific:
What disability is and what it is not
People with a disability have the same rights as everyone else to freedom, respect, equality and dignity. This includes the right of children with disabilities to access education
Awareness of the support for children with disability and how to access it
Improve norms around safeguarding and child protection
Address physical and psychological violence in the community, including female genital mutilation, Bondo initiation and the consequential attitudes towards early marriage
Develop safeguarding guidelines as part of a comprehensive school safety strategy
Include the topics below in the key messages for community members:
How to report using the National Reporting Protocol
How to access school gender champions and other support
What is safety and communities’ responsibility towards:
A survivor’s right to stay in school
Illegality to protect someone who has harmed a child, and the sanctions for it
A child, who are never to blame for any abuse, harm or neglect
Prioritise rural areas with the highest rates of, for example, child marriage
Responsible organisations: Gender Unit, Special Needs Unit, MBSSE and MoSW lead. Supported by: MoGCA, National Secretariat for the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy and Child Marriage, national networks, including Council of Paramount Chiefs and the Inter-Religious Council, CWC and SMCs
Objective: To enhance the use of the existing structures, such as through the introduction of by-laws46
Approach:
Discretionary use of by-laws should include consideration of the prevalence of available schooling within a given community
Share accountability through collective action to bring children to school on registration day, and to support children’s attendance
Suggested basis for by-laws for consideration by the actors above:
Reward 100% attendance at school
Motivate the community to motivate the schools to start on time and fill the correct term dates through the Chiefs
Parents and caregivers shall enrol any child the age of 6 to 17 years in school before the beginning of the academic year in September every year. Any parents or caregivers failing to enrol their child is liable to pay a fine of 500,000 SLL per child per year47
Parents and caregivers shall ensure attendance of any child the age of 6 to 17 years in school each day of the school term. For each unauthorised day of school missed by a child, parents or caregivers will be liable to pay a fine of 10,000 SLL
Timeline: By-laws can be implemented immediately
Responsible organisations: National Council of Paramount Chiefs and Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Section Chiefs to implement. Supported by: Directorate of Policy and Planning, MBSSE
Objective: To present parents and caregivers with the necessary minimum prompt to enrol all children in their care
Approach:
Request Council of Paramount Chiefs discuss the importance of ensuring all children are enrolled to reduce any burden of implementation
Community enrolling all children, reducing the number of children never officially recognised
By using existing structures this will not be implemented in all areas but will be a low-cost intervention where feasible
Responsible organisations: Council of Paramount Chiefs lead. Supported by: Community headmen, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, MBSSE through existing supportive structures such as SMCs, Mothers’ Clubs
Objective: To develop school oversight to ensure inclusion and school safety
Approach:
Link the SMCs to the community on issues of inclusion, reducing the burden on teachers
Guidelines on SMC action to include community linkages
Guidelines to be issued to all schools including community and private schools
Training for inclusion oversight: what are SMCs expected to oversee from the schools
Responsible organisations: Directorate of Policy and Planning, Gender Unit, MBSSE. Supported by: TSC and SQARM, MBSSE
Objective: To increase children in Early Childhood Education, to improve learners’ school readiness and positive attitudes to education, and will therefore reduce numbers of OOSC in the long-term
Approach:
Using geospatial analysis, increase the number of pre-primaries in the FQSE support
Bring existing pre-primaries around the country onto the FQSE programme
Link to the facilities with existing Community Learning Centres to share space and coordination
Policy to incentivise increasing private Early Childhood Development community centres
Responsible organisations: Early Childhood Development Unit, Directorate of Policy and Planning, MBSSE
Objective:
To implement and communicate key components of the 2022 National Social Protection Strategy, particularly related to school-age children to overcome cost barriers to education48 by supporting household income
Approach:
Targeting of OOSC or otherwise vulnerable learners requires baseline data and thus a link to Education Management Information System
Implement a child benefit in line with the National Social Protection Strategy with a thorough safeguarding review and access to grievance redress mechanisms
Assess benefits of prioritisation of key vulnerable groups such as single parent households, orphans and vulnerable children, persons with disabilities to target the groups most likely to drop-out of school
Responsible organisations: MoSW, National Commission for Social Action
Objective: To reduce drop-outs as economic barriers were found to be the most significant barrier to school49
Approach:
Pilot an education-specific cash transfers programme to increase pull to school to understand the method with best safeguarding and efficacy
Pilot merit-based cash transfers for secondary school learners
Identifying linkages to other education service delivery, cash transfer, and social protection programmes
Target through the Education Management Information System
Avoid stigmatisation through targeting with broadly defined eligibility
Targeting: Draw on any evidence from datasets (existing or planned, for example, One Tablet Per School) to understand those most likely to drop-out of school and their marginalisation factors, enabling effective targeting of cash transfers to the most at risk
Responsible organisations: Directorate of Research and Curriculum, SQARM, Directorate of Non-Formal Education, Gender Unit, MBSSE lead
Objective: To ensure community schools are able to benefit from the outcomes of the government's integrated home-grown school feeding strategy
Approach:
Include rural poor attending community schools
Improve communication with schools to ensure school leaders know when to expect delivery or delays so they can manage expectations
Responsible organisations: School Feeding Secretariat lead. Supported by: Directorate of Educational Programmes and Services, SQARM, MBSSE
Objective: To reconcile the Child Rights Act of 2007 and the Registration of Customary Marriage and Divorce Act 2009
Approach:
Pass an amendment to the Child Rights Act explicitly prohibiting child marriage. This would serve to close the loophole in the Registration of Customary Marriage and Divorce Act 2009, which allows under-18s to marry with adult consent so that children under-18 may not marry
Outlaw female genital mutilation and cutting explicitly in law
Responsible organisations: Gender Unit, MBSSE, MoGCA, Government
Objective: To ensure MoSW and Family Support Unit work effectively to protect children within their mandate
Approach:
Build an accurate picture of the minimum scale to respond to cases50 and how to enhance MoSW, MoGCA and Family Support Unit
Link Primero central database of Child Protection cases to Education Management Information System to flag existence of concern
Establish a standard reporting method from schools
Create adequate access and funding for safe houses, transport and other costs associated to protect children
Enforce safe environments by training and empowering law enforcement on the rights of children, girls and children with disabilities
Clarify roles and responsibilities of MoGCA and MoSW at the district
Establish effective regular coordination for use of social workers
Review what is possible for the ministries to achieve with present and potential resources, including the 2007 recommendation for regional offices51
Responsible organisations: Gender Unit, MBSSE, MoSW, MoGCA, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and Family Support Unit
Objective: To adequately support all child protection cases
Approach:
Increase in the number of social workers or volunteers trained to respond to child protection cases beyond the current 2-3 per district
In the short term, outsourcing via temporary contracts for surge capacity until review completion is an option
It is anticipated that social workers will work with Inclusive Education Units, SMCs and CWC
Develop Standard Operating Procedures to guide social workers on how to attend to different types of cases or concerns related to children
Responsible organisations: MoSW. Supported by: MoGCA, Directorate of Educational Programmes and Services, MBSSE
Objective:
To establish structures to enforce legal protections for children
To coordinate and refer child protection and well-being concerns at the community level to the appropriate structures and services
Approach:
Communicate intent to establish legally required bodies with local leadership
Community Leadership invite volunteers to sit on the committee
Train district-level focal points to cascade training to village CWC
Support CWC to meet monthly
Communicate to partners and national stakeholders the Government intent to align any community-level committees established in parallel
Establish a point of responsibility in charge of coordinating CWC in MoGCA, National Commission for Children and a focal point for coordination between CWC and school management in MBSSE
Report child well-being concerns outside of school to CWC
Provide SMCs with an access point to the community through CWC
Home visit children at risk of drop-out by CWC representative
Responsible organisations: MoGCA, Directorate of Policy and Planning, Directorate of Educational Programmes and Services, MBSSE
This strategy’s implementation is to be overseen by the Radical Inclusion Steering Committee.53
Figure 3: Organogram of implementation governance arrangements.54
Steering Committee55
The Radical Inclusion Steering Committee is to comprise responsible government agencies chaired by MBSSE, with the members from across government.56 Links to development partners and Civil Society Organisations through the Coalition of Development Partners.
Within the Steering Committee there will be an OOSC sub-committee to coordinate the actions of this out of school children strategy. It will sit no less than once every Steering Committee meeting.
Whilst the entire Steering Committee will oversee this strategy, with a broad invite to attend, the OOSC sub-committee is to consist of the Heads of:
Directorate of School Quality Assurance and Resource Management, MBSSE
Directorate of Curriculum and Research, MBSSE
Non-Formal Education Directorate, MBSSE
Gender Unit, MBSSE
Directorate of Social Welfare, Ministry of Social Welfare
National Secretariat for Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy, Ministry of Health and Sanitation
Chief Social Services Officer (Professional Head), Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs
Directorate of Policy and Planning
National Commission for Children
National Commission Persons with Disability
The sub-committee is expected to invite relevant partners from the Steering Committee as per the requirements of the agenda, specifically considering organisations of specialisation such as Organisation of Persons with Disability.
The senior MBSSE representative is to Chair the meeting, nominally the Chief Education Officer or a delegate.
Development Partners
The Coalition of Development Partners will report to the steering committee. It will allow greater MBSSE oversight and coordination of NGO and CBO programmes supporting OOSC.
Local
The National Commission for Children should report to the Steering Committee on the activities and outputs of Village– and Chiefdom–level Child Welfare Committees (CWC) reporting to District Education Committee, the Social Service Officers, TSC Deputy Directors, and FQSE Coordinators.
In the absence of CWC, until the law is implemented, District education officials and SMCs will bridge from schools to the communities.
The Steering Committee has the remit to review this strategy annually, define priority interventions, identify key gaps in child social protection coverage, and push for policy changes and oversee findings, to support OOSC and get them back into school.
Monitoring this strategy will take place with an annual review of line-by-line progress through the strategy by the OOSC sub-committee. It is expected that development partners will undertake some of these actions.
The key indicator for this strategy is number of out of school children, which surveys and continuous study will track (per Action 1.2.22.). The committee will adjust prioritisation of the strategy’s actions as school reporting data shows the implemented actions’ efficacy.