The Gilo Education and Economic Development (GEED) Foundation has signed agreements (MOU) with three secondary schools (in Port Loko, Tonkolili and Bo Districts) for the establishing of literary and debating clubs in these schools.

In February last year, the Foundation launched the pilot phase of the Walton Gilpin Podium Project for Debates and Public Speaking with the construction of four modern public speaking podiums. The fourth Podium, recently completed on Bonthe Island awaits commissioning.

Led by the Foundation’s Executive Director, Asilia Jartue-Gilpin, the team visited three of the four piloted schools, emphasizing the significance of promoting public speaking in schools as a sure way of complimenting government’s free quality education.

According to the MOUs, GEED Foundation will among other things, provide financial and technical support towards the programme which will be extended to other schools across the country. Beneficiary schools are in turn expected to effectively coordinate the activities of literacy and debating clubs in their respective communities with the ultimate goal of competing to raise their schools’ profiles in inter-school debating championships at district, regional and national levels.

The initiative was conceived from the growing concern that a good number of school children who eventually proceed to tertiary institutions would either struggle to express themselves fluently in the English Language or lack the confidence to do so. This has often questioned the standards in the country’s education system. GEED Foundation in addition to its support to women and girls seeks to create a national network of schools that would serve as breeding grounds for excellent public speakers in Sierra Leone.