President Julius Maada Bio has arrived in Paris, France ahead of the UNESCO Transforming Education Pre-Summit scheduled for June 29th–30th, 2022.
The President, who serves as Co-chair of the High-Level Steering Committee, is accompanied by the First Lady, Madam Fatima Maada Bio; the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Dr. David Moinina Sengeh; and other stakeholders in the education sector.
On the margins of the pre-summit, President Julius Maada Bio is expected to engage different stakeholders in the education sector to forge pathways for the development of education in Sierra Leone.
The overall objective of the PreSummit is to harness the evolving discussions on transforming education, elaborate on initial content, establish a shared vision and suggest actions for the Summit, and generate greater momentum in the lead-up to September.
More specifically, the PreSummit aims to provide an inclusive and open forum for countries that have advanced their national consultations to, among other things, present preliminary results of their consultations and share key elements of their commitment to transforming education in order to inspire other countries to come forward with bold commitments and actions at the Summit in September.
President Julius Maada Bio, as Co-Chair of the HLSC Leaders Group, is expected to reiterate the HLSC Call for Action at the Opening Session of the Pre-Summit. The UNESCO Transforming Education Pre-Summit is coming at a time when the government of Sierra Leone has increased school subsidies per term from Le 30.1 to Le 60 billion in the last term.
This is happening barely three months after the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development conference in Doha, where it was disclosed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Education Above All Foundation, Fahad Al-Sulaiti, that they have provided support for approximately 45,000 out-of-school-children in Sierra Leone. He said their foundation has been working with the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, David M. Sengeh, on the support at an estimated cost of $4 million United States Dollars. The Education Above All Foundation CEO assured President Bio of their commitment to ensuring Sierra Leone achieves the zero Out-Of-School-Children goal in partnership with the World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, and other development partners. Sierra Leone’s President, Dr. Julius Maada Bio, at that conference reiterated his government's commitment, and objective to achieving ‘zero-out-of-Schoolchildren in the country, by continuing to invest in the Free Quality Education program.
Sierra Leone President, Dr. Julius Maada Bio
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