By David Sengeh, Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Sierra Leone
In 2018, President Bio promised to "initiate discussions towards the reintroduction of Family Life Education in Schools".
Today and tomorrow, the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education is validating age and culture appropriate Teaching and Learning Materials for Comprehensive Sexuality Education.
This is such a momentous day in our education system where our children can now safely learn about their bodies, how to relate to the bodies of their peers and vice versa, and how this all fits within our communities. Yes, there are many many other topics.
And while greatly supported by our partners UNFPA, Irish Aid and others, this work has been led by the Government through the MBSSE, Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Ministry of Social Welfare, and Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs.
When we speak about CSE, we also speak about those out of school cases.
When I first joined government (and this is still true), the joke made by folks is that Taskforces are where things go to die. Alas, not in my Ministry and not when such a taskforce is led by the Chief Education Officer. The Comprehensive Sexuality Education and Reproductive Health Taskforce I formed some two years ago after the advice of President Bio has produced the Radical Inclusion policy and this CSE framework and TLMs. Taskforces in my work where we do lots of extra work outside our normal hours (sorry CEO :) ).
Yes I am proud that my team was able to do what President Bio promised the people on behalf of our government, but I am more excited about the future where SGBV, maternal mortality, STIs and many issues which exist for lack of CSE can begin to disappear.
Salone mus betteh!
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