The Executive Director for Zero Corruption Campaign- ZCC, Elison John, and team, on Monday 5th February 2024, paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Mr. Conrad Sackey, at his New England Ville Office in Freetown; firstly, to congratulate the Minister on his assumption of the office; renew and strengthen the existing partnership between his organization and the Ministry; and further identify areas and map out strategies on how both institutions can collaboratively continue to work for the common good of the education sector in Sierra Leone.

The ZCC delegation thanked the Minister for his laudable efforts to curb corruption, especially examination malpractice in public exams.

In his welcome address, Minister Sackey called on the ZCC to join his Ministry to continue clamping down on examination malpractice and general corruption in the education sector. He thanked the ZCC for their efforts towards the fight against corruption in the education sector in the past, adding that he was extremely impressed to see young people come together to organize public education campaigns across schools and tertiary institutions in the country to inject integrity into our leaders of today and tomorrow. He furthered reminded the ZCC delegation that Sierra Leone was once regarded as the Athens of West Africa in terms of education. However, the Minister stated that his dream is to restore Sierra Leone’s past glory in education, and intend doing so by partnering with young people led institutions like ZCC. He further explained the measures the ministry has taken under his leadership, both internally and externally to fight corruption in the education sector.

In responding to the Minister’s clarion call, Mr. Elison John said; “We take education issues very seriously in our work at ZCC, because education is the heart and soul of the nation. We also know that the highest investment by this government is currently in the education sector with over 20% of our yearly national directed to education. Our role as the people’s advocate and watchdog is to make sure we protect those resources because they are tax payers monies. We will continue with our advocacy work, and constantly raise a red flag whenever and wherever we see inappropriate actions that have the tendency for corruption in the education sector”. Mr. John commended the Minister for all the positive strides he has made so far. He also highlighted the activities their organization has undertaken in the past through their local partners in the area of education. He called on the Minister to partner and support areas of their work that align, noting that, the fight against corruption is not an easy or a one man fight, considering the vast nature of the operations of the Ministry, scattered all over the country. He ended by reassuring the Minister that the fight against corruption and examination malpractices in education is a fight the country must win, and his organization will continue to support the government’s effort in that regard.

The ZCC delegation and Ministry decided to work mainly on the following areas going forward:

-Monitoring of public examinations

-Embarking on massive public education on the dangers of examination malpractice in public exams.

-The two institutions also agreed to formally sign an MOU to further cement their partnership.

Zero corruption campaign-ZCC is a Youth-Led and Youth-centered civil society organization that focuses on mentoring young people on the ideas, ideals and tenets of patriotism and integrity. ZCC-SL is also an official partner organization of the Anti- Corruption Commission of Sierra Leone (ACC) with an officially signed Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) between both institutions since 2022- with the mandate to embark on massive, vigorous, intensive, and nationwide advocacy campaigns on the dangers of corruption in public sector institutions and Examination malpractice in schools and colleges.