We chose education because we truly believe every child regardless of their social-economic status deserves quality education. Education is a road map that children follow to build a strong foundation and reach their full potential in life. Yet most children in Sierra Leone do not have access to quality education.
The number one reason why majority of kids are not enrolled in school is because their families cannot afford to pay tuition or buy the required school supplies. In the majority of the schools, cost of school supplies is higher than the actual annual school tuition that parents can barely afford. It is not uncommon to see four to six students sharing one textbook or not having a notebook to write in. Today, about 40 percent of primary/middle school teachers do not have the proper training which is a contributing factor to Sierra Leone’s already weak education system. The literacy rate in Sierra Leone is 48.1% of which 58.7% are males and 37.7% are females.
Gender equality remains a major challenge in Sierra Leone. There has been an increase in young girls’ education however, many of them drop out of school because of child marriage, pregnancy, or domestic responsibility to name a few. Gender bias in the society makes it common for girls to be kept away from school while their male counterparts go to school. Sierra Leone has one of the highest child marriage rates in the world with about one-third of all girls married off by age eighteen. TEK School Foundation intends to help reduce this number through our donation of school supplies and awarding of scholarships to less privileged students especially girls.
The graph above indicates that cost of education is the number one reason why children age nine and above never went to school.
Source: Sierra Leone Education Country Status report 2013: Reporthttp://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002260/226039e.pdf
Source: Sierra Leone – Child Marriage around the world https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/sierra-leone/
Source: Sierra Leone – Education in Sierra leone https://borgenproject.org/tag/sierra-leone-school-system/
The Elizabeth Kanu School Foundation 