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Government of Sierra Leone Education Data Hub: A User Research Report

Freiermuth, S., Bedoui, C., Middleton, E., & Taddese, A. - 2020 - EdTech Hub

Report on the Government of Sierra Leone Education Data Hub

EdTech in Sierra Leone: A Rapid Scan (Country Scan No. 3)

Mullan, J., & Taddese, A. - 2020 - EdTech Hub

EdTech Hub country scans explore factors that enable and hinder the use of technology in education. This includes policies, government leadership, private sector partnerships, and digital infrastructure for education. The scans are intended to be comprehensive but are by no means exhaustive; nonetheless, we hope they will serve as a useful starting point for more in-depth discussions about opportunities and barriers in EdTech in specific countries and in this case, in Sierra Leone. This...

The Government of Sierra Leone’s new Medium-term National Development Plan (MTNDP) 2019–2023 has been founded on a strong political commitment to deliver devel-opment results that would improve the welfare of Sierra Leone’s citizens. The plan charts a clear path towards 2023 en route to the goal of achieving middle-income status by 2039 through inclusive growth that is sustainable and leaves no one behind. For the next five years, the Free Quality School Education Programme is the...

The Ebola crisis that plagued Sierra Leone in 2014-2016 had an unexpected positive consequence: giving learners access to the country’s best teachers through an innovative radio educational program. This experience served the country well when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

The Sierra Leone Teachers Union (SLTU) has long played an important role in the country's education system and its labor movement. With more than 30,000 members, the SLTU is the largest and perhaps the most powerful union in Sierra Leone today. Nonetheless, the union struggles with challenges unheard of in developed countries. It represents teachers in an education system that was ravished by its eleven-year civil war (1991 to 2002). Not only are working conditions extremely difficult for...

Outputs Register: The Impact of GIS-Supported Teacher Allocation in Sierra Leone

Haßler, B., McBurnie, C., Beoku-Betts, I., & Frazer, M. M. - 2023 - EdTech Hub

EdTech Hub, Fab Inc, and the Education Workforce Initiative have produced the outputs listed in this document as part of the EdTech Hub-commissioned research project on ‘GIS-supported teacher allocation in Sierra Leone’. This research project began in January 2022. This document lists all outputs produced under this project. All outputs are available to the public via the EdTech Hub Evidence Library. An output of the EdTech Hub, https://edtechhub.org

Factors Related to Teacher Absenteeism in Sierra Leone: Literature review

Vijil, A., McBurnie, C., Bellinger, A., … Haßler, B. - 2023 - EdTech Hub

This report is one of several on the research project on the Impact of GIS-Supported Teacher Allocation in Sierra Leone (Hub-Led Research Programme 3). The education workforce is the most important school-level determinant of student learning. In Sierra Leone, the pupil-to-qualified-teacher ratio rises from 44:1 for schools in urban centres to 76:1 for schools in rural areas. Meanwhile, an average of a quarter of the workforce is absent from school on any given day. This informal...

This report describes the progress made in implementing the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper for Sierra Leone covering the period 2005–07. Efforts to reform the public sector were not successful. Management and Functional Reviews were conducted for several ministries, departments, and agencies but the recommendations were not implemented. A Senior Executive Service program was also developed but government and development partners could not agree on an implementation strategy and therefore...

Understanding Teacher School Choice Preferences: What Matters Most for Teacher Deployment in Sierra Leone?

2023 - EdTech Hub Preprint

This exploratory mixed-methods study investigates the factors that shape where teachers want to work in Sierra Leone. We identify five dominant factors: monetary incentives, school conditions, opportunities for professional development and support, school location, and relationships with the school and the community. Importantly, these factors combine to push and pull teachers to different locations. Moreover, the factors interact with individual teacher characteristics such as gender,...

School-to-School Mobility Patterns and Retention Rates of Payroll Teachers in Sierra Leone (Working Paper No. 48)

Espinoza-Revollo, P., Ali, Y., Garrod, O., … Haßler, B. - 2023 - EdTech Hub

This report is one of several on the research project on the Impact of GIS-Supported Teacher Allocation in Sierra Leone. Recent studies from this series have shown that being put on the government payroll can incentivise teachers to relocate to remote areas of the country. There is a concern, however, that being put on the payroll does not necessarily ensure the retention of teachers in these areas and that teachers will soon move to locations they consider more favourable. As there is no...

Teacher Deployment in Sierra Leone: Lessons learnt and going forward [Policy briefing]

Beoku-Betts, I. - 2023 - EdTech Hub

This report provides an overview of the teacher deployment process in Sierra Leone prior to and including 2022. Through interviews with key stakeholders in the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) and the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), we look at lessons learnt from the deployment process and next steps for how teacher deployment can be implemented. Although there are a number of volunteer teachers in Sierra Leone, the TSC are aiming to increase the number of...

School Leaders’ Preferences on School Location in Sierra Leone: An individual and school-level study [Technical Report]

Espinoza-Revollo, P., Ramirez, A., Atherton, P., & Mackintosh, A. - 2022 - EdTech Hub

Attracting qualified teachers to remote areas is a challenge in Sierra Leone. The pupil-to-qualified-teacher ratio in rural areas is 76:1, rising to 83:1 for schools located more than 15 km away from urban centres — well above the national target of 40:1. As equitable teacher deployment is crucial to ensure high-quality education, the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) aims to increase the deployment of qualified teachers to the most remote areas of the country. This paper describes a...

Sierra Leone Digital Learning Landscape Analysis: Developing the National Digital Learning Strategy (Helpdesk Response No. 175)

Waziri, N., Mufti, A., Ramesh Vasudevan, S., … Oyedele, O. - 2025 - EdTech Hub

In 2024, the World Bank submitted a request to EdTech Hub's Helpdesk to support the Government of Sierra Leone in developing a National Digital Learning Strategy. The Hub initiated the process with the creation of this digital learning landscape analysis. The report identifies achievements and progress to date, as well as key challenges and priority areas going forward. It is based on primary and secondary data collection methods, including key informant interviews, focus group discussions,...

Investigating the Activity Levels of School Quality Assurance Officers in Sierra Leone (Working Paper No. 51)

Beoku-Betts, I., & Leh Wi Lan - 2023 - EdTech Hub

Since the launch of the Free Quality School Education (FQSE) Programme in 2018, the Sierra Leone Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) has prioritised the use of data for decision-making across several education reform programmes. Part of this vision has been to build systems to measure school quality through School Quality Assurance Officers (SQAOs) using data collection and feedback. This system includes using tools for teacher management, lesson observations, school...

A national education dashboard released last month by Sierra Leone’s agency for technology and innovation and the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) showed that schools and studentsRead More

Today, an estimated 2 million students return to school for the second year of the Free Quality School Education (FQSE) Program. The Government of Sierra Leone commits 21% of theRead More

This article analyses the emergence of ‘teenage pregnancy’ as a new policy focus in post-Ebola Sierra Leone and explores how Sierra Leoneans interpret the problem of ‘teenage pregnancy’. I argue that the new policy focus is not indicative of changing or new problems. Rather, ‘teenage pregnancy’ has created opportunities for donors and the Government of Sierra Leone to continue cooperation in gender politics. At the same time, Sierra Leoneans are clearly concerned about ‘teenage pregnancy’,...

In Sierra Leone girls are 23.4% less likely to attend secondary education than boys. This difference between sexes increases the gender gap in educational attainment since women's education is positively associated with children's educational wellbeing. This paper investigates the relationship between children's school attendance, their mothers’ level of education, as well as the overall level of women's education at the community level in Sierra Leone using multilevel statistical modelling...

EdTech Evidence From Covid-19 Response: A thematic review of primary research from Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, Pakistan and Sierra Leone (Working Paper No. 49)

Nicolai, S., Jefferies, K., & Stepanek Lockhart, A. - 2023 - EdTech Hub

To better understand the use of EdTech interventions as part of response to the Covid-19 pandemic, EdTech Hub commissioned ten small-scale research studies in five low- and middle-income countries: Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, Pakistan, and Sierra Leone. This paper includes insight into research methodologies across these studies, with particularly interesting findings on how EdTech effectiveness is being measured. A semi-structured thematic analysis further provides insights in relation to...