Primary education in Sierra Leone and development partnership with Britain :progress towards achieving Education for All (EFA)

One of the world's poorest countries, Sierra Leone, experienced a civil war from 1991\ud to 2002. The government has since been in the process of rebuilding the nation,\ud including the education sector. Yet, the challenge is that Sierra Leone is a very poor\ud country with about half of its national budget being donor-funded. Sierra Leone's\ud former colonial master and largest aid provider, Britain, is a particularly important\ud development partner. With donor assistance, the government introduced a free primary\ud education policy to achieve the international goal of EFA. The net primary enrolment\ud ratio has rapidly increased, from 35 per cent in 1992 to 63.0 per cent in 2004. However,\ud field research based on school observations, interviews with government officials,\ud teachers and people engaged in Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) such as\ud Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Faith-based Organisations (FBOs), and\ud questionnaires from pupils, parents, teachers, NGOs and government officials, reveals\ud worrying trade-offs in the quality of education provided. In addition, schools charge\ud parents "school fees" to run their schools under the free education policy. This is one\ud of the barriers to regular schooling for the vulnerable. Such findings show that the\ud government lacks the ability to provide adequate public services to the people. CSOs\ud have filled this democratic deficit and greatly contributed to the provision of education.\ud However, an investigation of donor-recipient relationships in this area showed that\ud there is a gap between the rhetoric and practice of "partnership" and "ownership" in\ud the development relationship. Using three development theories — Modernisation\ud theory, Dependency theory and Postcolonial theory to analyse aid modality and trends\ud in education plans and strategies, this research argues that Sierra Leone has been in\ud transition with regard to establishing ownership of its national development, working\ud with Britain as its main partner