Sierra Leone is bounded at the north-west, north, and north-east with the aid of the Republic of Guinea, on the south-east by the Republic of Liberia, and the south-west by way of the Atlantic Ocean. It has a place of 27,925 square miles. The colony of Sierra Leone originated inside the sale and session in 1787 via native chiefs to English settlers of a bit of land meant as a home for African settlers who have been waifs in London. Later, it became used as a settlement for freed African slaves. The hinterland changed into declared a British Protectorate on 21st August 1896. Sierra Leone attained independence on 27th April 1961 and have become a Republic in 1971. Education is supplied by both non-public and nation-backed faculties. The current schooling device is 6-three-4-4 (this is six years Primary faculty, three years Junior Secondary School, four years Senior Secondary School, and four years tertiary/higher schooling. This system is complemented by way of non-formal schooling.
CONCEPT OF EDUCATION
Education is regularly used in the feel of practice inside the study room, laboratory, workshop, or home technology room and consists mainly of supplying by way of the trainer, and the purchase by way of scholars, of records and intellectual as well as guide abilities. A wider means that instruction is that of training. That is to mention all that goes on in the college as a part of the student’s existence there. It consists of, amongst other matters, the relationship among scholars and teachers, pupils and scholars both in and outside the school. J. S. Mill (1931) opined that whatever allows shaping the individual; to make the man or woman what he’s or avoid him from being what he isn’t is part of his education. Implicitly schooling is lifelong and ubiquitous; it is the sum overall of all influences that make a person what he is, from birth to death. It consists of the home, our friends, and the street, amongst others.
Education is, to some extent, a planned, deliberate procedure devised and carried out with the aid of the educator to imbue the learner with positive facts, competencies, of mind and frame in addition to modes of conduct considered suitable. In component, it’s far the learner’s very own reaction to the environment in which he lives. Education has three focal points: the character/man or woman upon whom the educator’s effects are introduced to endure; the society or community to which he belongs; and the whole context of fact within which the man or woman and society play their element. Man is a social creature; he grows as a person through the effect of persona on a persona, or even for his basic physical needs, he relies upon the help and cooperation of his fellow males and females. Without society and the mutual support and enrichment of stories it gives, civilization is impossible. In Hobbes’ phrases, man’s lifestyles are “solitary, negative, nasty, brutish and quick.”
One of the fundamental information of human lifestyles is the tension between the pull of the beyond and the ahead urge into destiny, between balance and exchange, a way of life and innovation. For effective residing, the guy desires a circle of security, a place of hooked up conduct and courting bureaucracy dependable relationships. This is likewise genuine in society. There has to be an underlying continuity of traditions and outlook that preserves its identification as a society and safeguards it towards the disruptive effects of change for its effective functioning. Change has to be for lifestyles and not static; however, this modification, in turn, should be managed via the simple traditions of society. It is a subculture that gives a kingdom its man or woman and uniqueness as a society. The conservation of subculture, therefore, is glaringly critical.
It has been identified from time immemorial that the conservation of conventional training has an essential component in the child’s development. Today’s youngsters are the adults of the day after today; they have to learn consequently, to inherit and perpetuate the beliefs and modes of lifestyles odd to the unique society to which they belong. Every society desires to maintain itself now, not best physically but as a network consciously sharing certain goals, beliefs, and patterns of conduct. This form of training isn’t necessarily formal in schools by classroom guidance, but that effected indirectly thru the circle of relatives and thru the effect at the character of social effects and customs which the child cannot keep away from. In Sierra Leone, this social training included complicated initiation ceremonies regarding feats of staying power in which younger men and women ought to prove themselves worthy of the community. The remaining goal turned into to supply a sincere, respectful, professional, cooperative person who may want to conform to the social order of the day. As Aristotle once said, “the charter of a state will suffer if schooling is overlooked. The citizens of a nation ought to constantly be knowledgeable about fitting the charter of the kingdom. The individual suitable to a charter is the energy which maintains to sustain it as it’s also the state force which created it” (p. I).
TRADITIONAL EDUCATION IN SOCIETY
Traditional schooling has a creative and conservation characteristic in society; it is an effective way of keeping a society’s customs, if not subculture. In the beyond, the character and needs of society played an important part in determining the nature of training. Professor M.V.C. Jeffreys (1950) as soon as wrote in his ebook, Glaucon, that “in a tranquil society the academic device will tend to reflect the social pattern, while social uneasiness and instability create an opportunity for the use of education as a tool of the social trade”(p.7). A similar view became shared through John Dewey (1897), who opined that through schooling, society could formulate its own functions, can prepare its own method and resources, and for this reason store itself with definiteness and economy in the course wherein it wishes to move. Education appears both to the beyond and the destiny; necessarily, it reflects the traditions and character of society. Traditional schooling may prepare for modifications in society and anticipate and save you modifications or the effects of modifications in society.
Traditional education conserves and palms at the customs and approaches of existence that constitute a society’s individual and maintain its harmony. It additionally enables society to interpret its functions in new methods to fulfill the challenges of exchange, seeking methods or strains of development which are steady with the traditions and customs and could at the same time boost society to a whole fulfillment of itself.
TRADITIONAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN SIERRA LEONE
History famous that there were no formal schools where children had been knowledgeable in Pre-colonial Sierra Leone. The Poro and Bondo/Sande Secret Societies have been regarded as establishments to train youngsters. They were bush schools. And the schooling these bush schools supplied turned into casual. Children who went through these secret societies had been taken into consideration to wear out their civic responsibilities. They became adults and may marry and begin lifestyles. They were taken into consideration as one own family. In other words, each Secret Society created a sense of comradeship and solidarity amongst participants regardless of the circle of relatives, extended family, or ethnic association. It becomes consequently considered that kids who had not long passed through those mystery societies had been now not fully matured.
The Poro Secret Society is for boys. The spiritual head of the Poro Society is Pa Gbonu, seen simplest by the older graduates or participants. The bodily heads are the Pa Sama Yorgbors and Pa Romanos. They direct the sports of the group. The senior teachers are the Pa Kashis, who normally teach and deliver instructions to different initiators. The Pa Manchiyas function instructors to the initiates simultaneously as the Kachemak are the scaring spirits. They scare the ladies and youngsters alike collectively with the new initiates. The Rakas are the errand boys sporting messages round. The Yambas are the top boys. The Bomos are the senior prefects simultaneously as the Sayboms are the prefects, and the video display units are the Gbanaboms. Informal instructions are held within the Secret Poro Bush. The subjects taught encompass Creative Practical Arts, Performing Arts, Practical Agriculture, Medicine i.E. Use of local herbs to treat various illnesses), battle, and different capabilities. In Creative Practical Arts, initiates are taught how to make fishing nets, baskets, mats, and carving wood and soap stones into different objects inclusive of animals and humans; in Performing Arts, initiates are taught to make a song, dancing, and using Poro musical instruments. Practical Agriculture initiates practice farming. Boys are taught to undergo worry without criticism and grow accustomed to it. Thus they’re taken to the farms in their instructors and elders to work on a pro bono basis. However, at some point in the harvest season, they should pass thru these farms taking anything they need and devour without being puzzled by the way of farm proprietors. Initiates are taught to admire elders and use guns to kill animals. In a comparable vein, initiates are taught how to use guns in fighting in defense in their communities. Other talents initiates are taught to making fish traps, fishing and hunting net, and basketry. In the usage of herbs, initiates pay money (some freely given) for the restoration of diverse sicknesses and protection in opposition to enemies, evil spirits, and snake bites. Initiates who need to reason damage to others the usage of herbs ought to ‘redeem’ the herb/medication concerned. Overall, initiates are taught a new Language spoken handiest with participants referred to as Ke Sonor. For instance, folks trika means I am talking to you; Wonka Bonomi means Talk to me. The use of this new Language makes graduates very proud and experience distinctive from non-initiates. Graduates come out with new names, which include Lamp, Langba, and Kohler. A commencement rite climaxes the occasion.
