Key Note by Victor Kpandemoi Abu

At the Kenema Old Students Association (or KOSA) 2016 Annual

Dinner and Dance
1st October 2016, Holiday Inn Kensington Forum, 97 Cromwell Rd,
London SW7 4DN

Theme: Enhancing Development Through Education

Title:

Aspire

to

develop

Kenema

Government

Secondary

School

community through education.

Members of the Kenema Old Students Association, also known as, KOSA
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I feel honoured to be recognised as Key Note Speaker at the 2016 Dinner
and Dance of KOSA, an association of gentlemen from the Kenema
Government Secondary School or KSS or K School, who are here tonight in
their ironed out and remarkable school blazer. They refer to their glorious
school, the University of the East, for the reason of being at the pinnacle
of education development in eastern Sierra Leone for sixty-four years.
I have been asked by my friends to speak on enhancing education
through

development,

with

focus

on

their

school,

the

Kenema

community, and the role of the alumni. I have therefore titled my speech:
Aspire to develop the Kenema Government Secondary School community
through education. Also, for reason that their Motto is about aspiring to be
the best or nothing, aut Optimum aut Nahil. I am delighted to speak on
a theme cherished by all here, a theme that befits an association whose
members have had direct benefit of education, from a city and country in
dire need of repair.
Let me share with you some current information about the school,
provided by the outgoing Senior Prefect, Morie Koroma, whose permission

I have. The school operate a one shift system for the Junior Secondary
School or JSS and Senior Secondary School or SSS pupils; class sizes are
from 80 to 100 pupils; school fees are between Le 35,000 and Le 40,000
or about 78; poor structures and equipment over-crowded classrooms,
inadequate seats, broken and missing doors and ceilings, tired wall paint
though two blocks were recently painted; new pupils may be required to
provide furniture; additional classrooms fetched from dining hall, pavilion
and DSTV hall; poor electricity and water supply by the regional grids; lack
of core and general reading materials; pressure to pay for extra or private
tutorials and purchase pamphlets authored by teachers; less qualified
teachers for core and general subjects; very low teacher morale; are
among the long list of challenges.
This information is not new as many here know about the poor state of KSchool and schools across Kenema and our nation. This is what is sad,
when we say, we have heard it all before. But I understand that point of
view, for what is the use of talking when you cannot change the status
quo.
Kenema, the economic and administrative centre of eastern Sierra Leone,
is rightly judged by standards in Bo and Makeni, cities with similar status
in the southern and northern regions. By coincidence or maybe the design
of KOSA, the only good road in Kenema, Combayma Road, passes in front
of K-School from the city centre. Otherwise, the unfathomable road
condition of Kenema is all I can mention here among her myriad of
infrastructure backwardness, which make it score below par of Bo and
Makeni.
The K-School and Kenema challenges are part of the Sierra Leones
economic malaise. Our Gross Domestic Product of 5 billion dollars is 0.01%
of global GDP, with 60% dependency on agriculture and 2% on
manufacturing, rank 180th of 187 countries in the Human Development
Index on education and standard of living, 60% living below daily $1
poverty line, 50% public investment finance by external sources, 2%

internet users, 70% underemployed or unemployed youths, 119 th of 168

corrupt nations or 71% chance of corruption; and a very long list goes on.
The economy has given us an education system with: 2.8 million
enrolments in formal education, with 25% of primary school age out of
school, 24% of JSS age out of school, and 38% of SSS age out of school,
where the 2015 Millennium Development Goal was 100% enrolment for
these age groups. There are 17,000 and 150,000 enrolments in tertiary
and

non-formal

education

respectively,

70%

adult

illiteracy

and

innumeracy, and 20% national budget allocation to education.

A gloom but real story of K-School, Kenema and Sierra Leone, intertwined
with failures by individuals, organisations and state.
When I asked Morie Koroma, the outgoing Senior Prefect of K-School, his
view about enhancing development through education, his simple
answer was, it is not simple. He could not dare offer solution to the
education and development nightmare of his school. I agree with him, and
sure some of you may agree that it takes mammoth task to fix our
wreckage to a point of crawl. But I, and convinced many here tonight are
associates of the school of the glass is half full, which is the optimist, can
do, will happen disposition. That is how we all arrived on this shores
determined to invest and harvest the possibilities. I am confident in our
potentials as individuals, organisations and communities to enable our
development through education of our people.
Most will attest that education enhance development or that education
is pivotal to our future, as have been stated by Ban Ki Moon that we as a
people are the greatest wealth of our nations, a wealth that must be built
on quality education. Nelson Mandela said Education is the most
powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. My best is by
our statesman Ahmed Tejan Kabbah in his memoir Coming back from the
brinks in Sierra Leone (2010), that education is the rock upon which we

can build a free, democratic, and economically viable society; an

investment and insurance policy for the survival of the people.
The concept that investment in human capital or education promotes
economic growth dates to 18th century Adam Smith and early 1960s
economists Schultz, Krueger and Denison, who expound that education
contribute directly to growth of national income by improving the skills
and productive capacities of the labour force. The 1960s also witnessed
the World Bank and multi-lateral organisations adopt education as an
acceptable and concrete approach to nation building.
Most of us do not need convincing that educated workers create income
through their skills and knowledge, which increase their productive
capacities, and contribute to overall national development. Education
empowers women and men to self-determine their political lives, boost
poverty reduction through better understanding of economic activities,
reduce infant and maternal mortality, lead to better nutritional status,
improve disease prevention, open doors to unlimited possibilities, change
our mind-sets, make us dream, and bridge the gap between our realities
and the future we may choose. Education help to fight discrimination,
improve health, secure better jobs, and equip us for lifes challenges and
opportunities. Investment in education build human capital, equip people
for global economy, develop skills and know-how to attract foreign
investment, generate new jobs, and build shared prosperity. These are farfetched benefits of education which we can be achieved through
dedicated efforts by stakeholders in our education development, including
individuals, associations and the state.
Individuals should engage with development through education in such
ways as; additional training of self for possibilities that may arise, do your
school runs, pay school fees and buy books for children back home,
encourage relatives to send and keep all children at school especially girls
and young women, visit your alma meters on your holiday to serve as
role-models, and influence local community and national policies on
education.

Organisations like KOSA should put education at the core of their

operation manuals, same practice for descendant, social, religious and
political associations. These organisations should cultivate dedicated
members who would commit their time, money and material resources for
good causes of structure renovation, scholarships, and donation of books
and other education materials. Collaboration between associations are
unexplored possible channels of undertaken joint community projects with
wider benefits.
Good governance is crucial for sound policies and honest investment in
education priorities across all ages and communities, with radical but
doable recommendations aimed at achieving 100% basic and non-formal
education in 13 years, where provision is made for the 6:3:3 school
system, a project that could be dubbed, Education for all by 2030, with
specific recommendations I make: large scale construction and equipment
of education institutions; compulsory enrolment of all school going age;
free tuition, free core text books and mass promotion of all primary and
secondary school pupils; free uniforms and feeding for all primary and
secondary school pupils from homes below poverty line; mass training of
youths in relevant skills in free tuition technical and vocational institutions
established at chiefdom levels; revalidation of universities and colleges
curricula with programmes relevant to our development, subsidise their
fees, and create access at district levels; mass non-formal education at
every ward or section or village level with relevant continuing education
curricula for out of school children, youths and adults.
Consider this examples of the direct and indirect benefits of mass
investment in radical education development projects. Building five
hundred more schools will expand our construction and engineering
industries, increase classroom capacity for more enrolments, provide jobs
and income for teachers and school administrators, and facelift our
infrastructure.
We agree that the sad state of our schools, cities and country need the
attention of individuals, organisations and the state, if you are to enhance

our development through education. Education is what you make of it. If

you cover your candle of enlightenment and knowledge, it will not shine
through you, or families, associations and communities to which you
belong. So make your education work for you, let it count. Where two or
more are fortunate to associate their good causes, then make your
education work even harder for your association or organisation. Better
still when these individual and organisational intentions culminate into
concrete and well managed national programmes, then we are on course
to enhance development through education, until which time we should
not waver to aspire to enhance the development of Government
Secondary School Kenema community through education of our people.
This is a task for one and all.
Thank you for your attention!!