Sierra Leone Teens Finish Secondary School Exam
POSTED ON Jul 20, 2010 / UPDATED ON Jul 21, 2010
COTN Junior Secondary Student Massah Bunduka studied hard for the recent exams that will allow her to continue on to secondary school.
Massah is relieved that she finally completed the eight-day exam.
Eddie Kamara enjoys a break from his studies outside a home in COTN’s Children’s Village.
Christiana Tower stands outside of her home near COTN’s minister center in Sierra Leone. She did her best on the exam in hopes to enter into secondary school in the fall.
Karim Kamara, who lives in COTN’s Children’s Homes in Sierra Leone, joined his 23 classmates in Mariba Town for the eight days of testing.
COTN Junior Secondary School classmates are led in opening exercises by N’gardy Bangalee, who was part of the first class at COTN’s new secondary school last year.
Massah Bunduka put her pencil down and breathed a sigh of relief. She had finally finished her exam! She looked around at her classmates and thought of the hard work they had all done to be there, taking this test. She couldn’t wait for the results, but right now, she was just glad to be finished. “The easiest exam was Religious Moral Education,” Massah says. “And the hardest for me was Home Economics.”
Massah, along with twenty-three other students from Children of the Nations’ (COTN) Junior Secondary School in Banta Mokelleh, Sierra Leone, completed the Basic Education Certificate Examination on July 14. The exam, which was spread out over eight days, is what allows students in junior high to move on to senior secondary school. Students who don’t pass the exam are given the option to take it again the following year, or are moved over to COTN's Skills Center to learn a trade.
Over the past few months the group of COTN students—made up of children from our Children’s Village, our Village Partnership Program, and the surrounding communities—have put in extra hours with their teachers to study for the tests. Sometimes that amounted to four or five lessons in the afternoons and eight or nine in the evenings. “I'm really proud of the effort our children have put in to these exams,” says Mark Drennan, COTN's Sierra Leone Country Liaison who is currently in Banta Mokelleh. “They have been working hard all year.”
Adding to the test-taking pressure, the students had to travel about an hour away to take the exam in Moriba Town, where they stayed at the home a student's mother. When the teenagers weren’t taking that day’s test, they were getting in last minute studying with their accompanying COTN teachers, Aunty Kadie Koba and Mr. Bah. They even received a visit from a COTN Venture Team of teachers who are in Sierra Leone leading teacher seminars. The team gave the students a math overview before they took the math portion of the exam.
Though remaining focused and rested was the main goal of staying in Moriba, the group did have a little bit of free time in the town, which included catching a few World Cup games. “They seemed to be having a great time all living together for the week and making friends with students from the other schools,” Mark says.
If this group of anxious and bright students passes the exam—which their teachers are confident of—they’ll be the second 10th grade class at COTN’s new senior secondary school in Banta. Most of these determined students have been part of COTN’s ministry since elementary school—orphaned or destitute without an opportunity for a solid education before becoming part of COTN. Now, as educated teenagers about to enter into high school, they are motivated to become Sierra Leone’s future leaders. “The examiner from the Sierra Leone Department of Education said that our kids were doing well,” Mark says. “He said that he was happy to see that there was a good school for the children to attend in Banta."
That “good school” status is just what COTN is striving for, so the more than 600 students who attend COTN’s primary and junior secondary schools will all have the ability to one day move on to senior secondary school. For some, college will be the next step after that—an opportunity that has never before been attainable for most families and children in this remote area of Sierra Leone.
Students won’t find out their exam results until October. For now, though, the relieved group of students who just returned home from a long eight days of test-taking, are excited to simply enjoy the rest of their summer. As exams came to a close, Massah summed it up for students worldwide when she shouted to her classmates, "Let the exam be finished now so that we can enjoy our holidays!"
Donate online to help fund COTN’s new senior secondary school in Sierra Leone or sponsor a student like Massah at our Sponsorship page.