The information provided below was submitted as at 2020-05-19 16:03:53 by the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education of Sierra Leone in responding to the AU Survey of Member States on Education Sector Response to COVID-19. The information is solely for experience sharing purposes and not to be used for other purposes without express permission of the African Union Commission.
| Country | Sierra Leone |
| Ministry | Ministry of Technical and Higher Education |
| Education level handled by the Ministry | Tertiary Education, TVET |
| Number of Schools in Tertiary | 7 |
| Number of Schools in TVET | 194 |
| Does the Ministry have a COVID-19 response plan? | Yes |
| Objectives and Priorities of the COVID-19 response plan |
The purpose of our Plan is to prepare, respond and utilize critical resources to address the COVID-19 outbreak. In line with the global health approach and as indicated in our national approach, the MTHE has developed this preparedness and response framework, which would: Additionally, we will: |
| Percentage estimate of Schools Closed | 90-100 |
| Percentage estimate of Schools Offering Distance/Virtual Education | 0-9 |
| Percentage estimate of Students who are currently receiving Virtual/Distance Education | 10-29 |
| Methods for the provision of Distance/Virtual Education | Lessons are scanned and sent through email for students to complete., Interaction through WhatsApp/Telegram or other social messaging applications between students and teachers, Online lessons via government owned e-learning portal |
| Specific Innovations which are being implemented | Since students are home, our colleges and TVET centers are getting assignments from the list above, however, our innovative way to transmit learning is by: 1. select core and some hard courses, especially in TVET, develop lesson notes, film intructors while teaching, edit and burn the items in a fflash drive and share to TVET centers for onward distribution to students with computes or device with ubs port. For those without, the TVET administrators are negotiating the possibilities to have 10 students at a time in a well spaced room, and following all the health protocols to access the materials |
| Number of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Institutions offering Distance-Virtual Education | 13 |
| Partners which are supporting the Ministry of Education to respond to COVID-19 | World Bank |
| Is there a plan for reopening schools? | Yes |
| Does the reopening plan include a back to School campaign? | Yes |
| Does the reopening plan include catch-up strategies for the school calendar and or curriculum? | Yes |
| Objectives and priorities of the plan to reopen Schools |
Part of our recovery strategy is to reopen school when the covid19 would have been brought under control. The objective is to limit the damage done by EBOLA and now COVID19 to catchup with other West African countries. We are planning to start reopening with the TVET centers, they have smaller number and later the universities and colleges |
| Is there a separate strategy/strategies for girls to catch up on their education due to the impact of COVID-19? | No |
| Challenges that have been encountered by the Ministry while responding to COVID-19 | Availability of Virtual Learning Technology Hardware and Infrastructure, Internet Connectivity to support deployment Virtual Learning platforms, Technical capacity gaps for Virtual/Distance Education Support Personnel, Financing gaps. |
| Date Submitted | 19-05-2020 |
If you are interested in contacting the Ministry for further information, please contect This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please note that any secondary use of this data is not allowed without seeking express permission of the African Union Commission.