Freetown, Monday 16 September 2019 – His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio has told the formal opening of school facilities in Constituency 132 in Freetown that his government will continue to invest in quality education for sustainable national development.
He thanked the Sierra Leone Peoples Party, SLPP, Member of Parliament for Constituency 132, Honourable Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, and his people for inviting him to the launch, adding that the government would continue to dedicate 21 percent of national budget to education and open access to every Sierra Leonean child regardless of gender, ability, ethnicity, religion, or region.
“My Government believes that education is a critical enabler of national development. We shall, therefore, spare no expense because we know the cost of ignorance and we know the cost of lagging behind in development. Our new Sierra Leone refuses to languish in backwardness. This is our new pathway and we will succeed as a nation because we are investing in young people,” he said.
President Bio stated that the government was doing all of that because the future of the nation depended on good quality education, adding that the country would need the best medical personnel, the best engineers to build the roads and hospitals, to mine the enormous natural resources, to provide infrastructural solutions and would need the best scientists, ICT engineers to take full advantage of advances in communications technology for development.
“So I am very much gratified this morning to be here to formally open these educational facilities. For us all, this is a moment of inspiration; it is a moment of great hope. It makes us all believe what is possible when our hearts are in the right place and when we care very deeply about our communities, our people, and about the future of this nation.
“We will make schools safe spaces for girls and we will vigorously campaign against early child marriage, teenage pregnancy, and protect our girls from sexual and gender-based violence. We will pass laws that protect girls and women,” he said.
In his statement, Honourable Tawa Conteh said that the event was a symbol of a commitment he had made and delivered on. He said that since his election he had dedicated himself and paid keen attention to putting words into actions by following the footsteps of President Bio who believed in education as a tool for development.
“This event is an epoch-making, one that is signalling the formal handing over of another completed project at the Services Secondary School in just under seventeen months of being elected to serve the constituency I so love. The project includes the development of a school hall, construction of a sitting pavilion, expansion of stage area, electrification of the entire facility, removal and replacement of broken windows at the administrative and dormitory buildings and general rehabilitation and painting of the school,” said the SLPP Lawmaker.
The young MP also thanked the President for accepting the invitation to formally hand over a project that was so close to his heart and one that had a synergy with the Free Quality Education and also commended the President for his unflinching support to building infrastructure in his constituency, citing the Sengbeh Pieh Bridge, Atlantic road works, works at Babadorie Gooding drive among others.
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