Education in Sierra Leone

Fourah Bay College, affiliated with Durham University in the United Kingdom,  was founded in 1827 as the first tertiary educational institute in the region.

The country was an important centre in training teachers, doctors and administrators for whole of West Africa in the first half of the nineteenth century.

It was elitist in nature aimed at urban middle class and focused on the academically gifted who would go on to tertiary education before taking up positions as civil servants in the government.

When Sierra Leone declared independence in 1961, under 15% of children aged five to eleven and only five percent of 12- to 16-year-olds attended school.

[2] The generation of child soldiers that came out of the Sierra Leone Civil War also set these goals back, as they had to be reintegrated into their community.

There are thousands of former soldiers in Sierra Leone that have a hard time reintegrating into their communities after experiencing the atrocities of war.

The NPSE is designed by the West African Examination Council and has to be passed in order to progress to secondary education.

[14] The number of children receiving primary education has greatly increased since the end of the civil war.

[28] In addition, The Evangelical College of Theology, founded in 1964, is accredited by the University of Sierra Leone and the Tertiary Education Committee for both the Diploma and Bachelor level.