Celebrating a legacy of transformational change
Goodbyes and endings are usually melancholy occasions. However, there are rare moments where an ending becomes a celebration of achievements, and a goodbye becomes a marker of friendship.
On Tuesday, 30th of November, the Assuring Quality Higher Education in Sierra Leone project (part of the SPHEIR portfolio funded by the FCDO) held its final meeting. The project director, Mr Samuel Weekes, said this:
“I don’t like to call the words ‘final’, or ‘ending’. I would prefer we use the word ‘celebration’, because we have reached this point as a team, and we have had huge success together…”
After four years of working together to prepare for and then implement the project, navigating challenges such as COVID-19 and university strikes, the project team, with representatives all over Sierra Leone as well as the UK and the US came together to close the project and communicate our achievements to our stakeholders.
The project invited the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), British Council (who lead the Fund Manager consortium alongside PwC and UUKi), representatives from Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Technical and Higher Education (MoTHE), the chairman of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), the Vice Chancellors and Principals as well as employers, students and participating academic and project staff from our 13 partners to attend the project ‘celebration’ and witness the handover of project responsibilities to our partners and stakeholders.
During the morning session, highlights from the project’s recent external evaluation were presented by Hannah Lewis, the project manager. Individuals were invited to share stories of their own experience of curriculum reform, employer engagement, capacity building through pedagogical and critical thinking training, as well as its huge strides in quality assurance.
Stephen Harvey, the Education Lead for the FCDO in Sierra Leone, commended the project for its “notable level of ambition”. He went on:
“The positive findings of the recent evaluation of the project are testament to the efforts of the team. I would like to underline how significant FCDO assesses the achievements to be… Her Excellency High Commissioner Lisa Chesney has asked me to pass on the excellent feedback from stakeholders that she has received — especially with respect to enhanced sector coordination and quality assurance.
“In these difficult times, it’s more important than ever for us to collaborate widely to promote the resilience and development of higher education in Sierra Leone. Long live the spirit of collaboration that has been nurtured by the programme.”
The Director of British Council in Sierra Leone, Kelly Ferguson, also passed on her congratulations, saying:
“I’m pleased to say we’ve seen both practical delivery and establishing long-term structures come to fruition with the impressive progress the team have made across key areas including revision of curricula, training academics in critical thinking and gender responsiveness, establishing mechanisms for engaging employers and the development of the quality assurance diploma and …the National Qualifications Framework, and all of this achieved against the backdrop of a global pandemic!
“It is a testament to the huge passion and commitment demonstrated by all of the project partners and external stakeholders who have supported them. And for this, I thank each and every one of you.”
Leaving a legacy
The project has produced a wealth of project documents — including a Quality Assurance Manual, Curriculum Review Handbooks, Pedagogy Training Manual, National Qualifications Framework for Tertiary Education (NQFTESL) and the External Evaluation report — which can all be found in our project repository, along with a wealth of other resources produced through the project.
Formal handover of the project documents to the MoTHE, TEC and institutions took place in the afternoon of the project meeting. In addition, responsibility for the NQFTESL was formally handed over to the TEC and the Quality Assurance Postgraduate Diploma to the University of Makeni.
Rev. Fr. Prof. Joseph Alimamy Turay, Vice Chancellor of the University of Makeni, and only member of the Conference of Vice Chancellors and Principals (CVCP) founded at the beginning of the project writing phase in 2017 that remains today, spoke of the lasting impact of the SPHEIR programme in Sierra Leone. On receiving the PG Diploma, he noted the culture change that has been achieved. He stated:
“It is too soon to see the lasting impact of this project, however, what is clear is that the outcomes are outstanding. Quality culture has been established and is being actively sought in Sierra Leone higher education, and we at the University and more widely on behalf of the Conference of Vice Chancellors and Principals, will work actively to continue the sustainability of these outcomes and indeed to build upon them for a brighter future for our young people and the development of our country.”
Students and employers were also given the opportunity to make statements, both remarking upon their pleasure to be included in such reforms and their hope for the open communication channels and partnerships which are yielding mutual benefits to be sustained into the future.
Once again, the “common vision”, “common language” and deep bond that evaluators remarked upon was a clear theme throughout the entire celebration. The deep love of Sierra Leoneans for their country and for education was obvious and it is clear that these groups of academic “political entrepreneurs” will not let such a thing as the end of the AQHEd-SL project stop them from breaking new ground and continuing to improve the quality and experience of higher education for students and staff alike.
Sierra Leone was once known as the “Athens of Africa”, a nickname which was given when Freetown was seen as the educational hub of West Africa. Despite the trials that have diminished this once great reputation, this project shows what can be done when Sierra Leonean academics are given the tools and resources to collaborate. It shows a desire to see real transformational change that will benefit everyone from the Ministries and the Tertiary Education Commission at national level, to the students, staff and employers on an individual level.
We should all continue to expect great things from Sierra Leonean higher education and its potential to leverage national economic and social development. One day, the Sierra Leonean education system may surpass its previous “Athens of Africa” reputation, having earned global recognition for its standalone contributions that require no caveats or comparison to the Global North.
By Hannah Lewis, Project Manager of AQHEd-SL
This article is also available in pdf form in our repository here.
