COTN’s Senior Secondary School Begins Again in Sierra Leone
POSTED ON Aug 20, 2010 / UPDATED ON Jan 27, 2011
Susan Ibrahim calls herself a "pioneer."
Susan Ibrahim calls herself and her fellow students “pioneers.” And they are. Last year the thirty-two eager teenagers were the first class at Children of the Nations’ (COTN’s) senior secondary school at Mallory Jansen Memorial School in Banta Mokelleh, Sierra Leone. “We are pioneers,” she says, “because we have to start something for others.”
With facilities and staff for only pre-school, primary and junior secondary schools (kindergarten through ninth grade), Banta Children’s Village tenth- through twelfth-graders had been sent off to boarding school. But with such a large class of students ready to attend tenth grade last year, COTN–Sierra Leone Country Director Reverend Angie Myles decided it was time we have our own facility. Without a senior secondary school at COTN, many of the Village Partnership Program and community children ready for that level of schooling would be unable to continue their education. The cost for most families to send them on to boarding school—the closest one being 30 miles away—was just too high.
In an effort to live out COTN’s vision of raising children who transform nations, COTN–Sierra Leone staff worked hard to make the new senior secondary school a reality. Their excitement spread to families in the surrounding villages, and it became a community effort. Funds came from COTN partners, the staff, COTN school students, and people from the community. Some of the junior secondary school teachers offered to help teach the first year, on top of their other classes, for little pay, to get it started.
Susan and her peers recognize the benefits of attending COTN’s senior secondary school—the only one currently in the entire chiefdom. “At other schools, they are very expensive even when they don’t have the quality of teachers that we have here,” says Susan. “We thank God that we can depend on our teachers teaching and we can take an exam to graduate and make it.”
"Making it" as Susan calls it—attending college in the future to become a professional, or even to run a business in their home village—is now a much bigger possibility for children growing up in the Banta Mokelleh chiefdom of Sierra Leone. COTN’s new senior secondary school will give students whose families can’t afford to send them to a boarding school a chance at breaking the cycle of poverty that comes from lack of education, early marriage, teenage pregnancy, and no income. “We want to make sure we are seeing change in the community,” Rev. Angie says.
Change is continuing this school year as a new set of tenth graders begins and the eleventh graders keep paving the path. The school is in need of about seven new teachers to accommodate the incoming students, though they won’t know how many will be attending until the first day of school. This doesn’t seem to worry Rev. Angie, though. “I am a woman of faith,” she says, confident that God will provide the needed funds and teachers.
It also doesn’t seem to faze Susan and her fellow students, who are anxious to begin school again this fall. “We are the first class to start senior secondary school,” she says. “And anything you start, you have to sacrifice a lot. We are very happy and proud. Our name is recorded in the history book of COTN that we are the first children to start senior secondary school with COTN in Sierra Leone.”
COTN–Sierra Leone is in need of funds to build a second classroom for the eleventh grade students and hire more teachers. Visit our Giving Opportunities page to help!