Remarks by the UN Resident Coordinator at the National Consultation for the Transforming Education Summit.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

On my way to work every morning, I am met with throngs of children on their way to school. They would be in their school uniforms, bookbags behind their backs, with faces that show eagerness towards the day ahead. This poignant scene that I have the privilege to witness every day here in Sierra Leone is a stark reminder of what has been accomplished thus far in terms of access to education in this country and the work that we all here still must do.

The simple truth is that today, well into the 21st century, millions of children and young people are still not in school, and millions of those who are in school are not really learning, not really achieving the kind of learning that is relevant for their lives in the world they are living in. With the COVID-19 pandemic, these challenges have only been exacerbated.

In 2021, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced that a Transforming Education Summit (TES) would be convened in September 2022 as a global strategy to avert a generational catastrophe and rethinking education systems, especially in the context of COVID-19, which has disrupted education systems globally, affecting the most vulnerable learners the hardest.

This global pandemic has increased inequalities and exacerbated a pre-existing education crisis. The global learning crisis is particularly acute and urgent in sub-Saharan Africa, where available data suggests that 9 out of 10 children cannot read and understand a simple text, amidst the reality that the pupil-to-qualified teacher ratio for primary school is 42 in many African countries. 

The Transforming Education Summit intends to put the spotlight on education and provide an opportunity for education stakeholders to advocate for sufficient, effective, and equitable financing of education at global and domestic levels.

Transformative actions, which include getting every child ready for school, ensuring they acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills, and that attention is given to the needs of the most marginalized including girls and children with disabilities, are the expectations from this journey to rebuild our education systems.

In this regard, on behalf of the UN Country Team in Sierra Leone, I congratulate the Government of Sierra Leone for being a continental leader in reforming the education sector and making ambitious commitments to improve learning processes and outcomes. The Government of Sierra Leone continues to invest more than 20 percent of its national budget in education. The Free Quality School Education (FQSE) Programme, one of the Government’s flagship programmes, is dedicated to promoting quality education for all children.

Other commendable achievements are the development of the Education Sector Plan (2022-2026), which clearly articulates the country’s vision for the education sector and the compact development process aligned with the Global Partnership for Education’s 2021-2025 strategy. These two high-level initiatives were formulated in highly inclusive and consultative processes.

In addition, Sierra Leone has domesticated the SDG 4 targets and participated in the voluntary National Review of its progress toward the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.  

Another example of Sierra Leone’s leadership and commitment to transform education was also shown just two weeks ago, when the Government of Sierra Leone, through the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund and United Nations Girls' Education Initiative, hosted a high-level ministerial meeting on Transformative Leadership for Gender Equality in and through Education. Through a draft manifesto presented on the last day of the meeting, the Education Ministers of Burkina Faso, Chad, Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, committed to focusing their leadership on empowering girls through education while seeking to achieve gender equality in and through education.

This National Consultation that is being held today, is one of the three intersecting and reinforcing workstreams identified to achieve the summit’s objectives to develop a shared vision, commitment, and alignment of action across constituencies to transform education between now and 2030.  Two other processes, the Thematic Action Track and Public Engagement and Mobilization process, are also scheduled before the September. All three processes will aid in giving Sierra Leone a holistic national documentation of some of the major achievements, good practices, and key drivers of transforming education.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

The Transforming Education Summit is so important because it is where heads of states and leaders of nations and global institutions, must commit not just to accelerate the pace, but actually to reimagine and transform education systems. It is only through such a radical transformation will we be able to really accomplish the goals of inclusive, quality education for all.

I look forward to your active participation in today’s important consultation and to actions to rebuild and transform the education sector in Sierra Leone.

Thank you.