The President of the Republic of Sierra Leone Julius Maada Bio during a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) interview on Thursday, August 11 2022, described the Free Quality School Education (FQSE) as a huge, ambitious but necessary project for every child in Sierra Leone.

“That is a huge undertaking that is taking a large amount of money every month. We are providing school fees, we are providing core textbooks, we are providing teaching and learning materials, we are providing subsidies to schools, we are providing transportation in most of the cities, we are providing school feeding for most parts of the country,” President Bio said.

According to the President, these are very expensive undertakings at a point when the global economy is facing difficulties, but the government has made that effort just to make sure that they equip the young people, place them in a position where they will be able to gain employment.

“We do agree that most of the youths are unemployed and we do sympathize with their situation and as a government, we have done quite a lot to address that situation among them is the Free Quality School Education and that involve technical education as well. It is all meant for them to be able to empower themselves and make them employable,” he said.

He said the government has made access to education free so that every Sierra Leonean can be empowered, noting that the Free Quality School Education also promotes inclusivity which means if a child born in Sierra Leone today, that child should have access to education regardless of the gender, region, or disabilities.

“When I promised free and quality education, my opponents said it was a political gimmick. But today, I have proven them wrong. In less than six months, we have shown that free education is possible. I have always prioritised education as a means for development. As President, in order to demonstrate my commitment to education, my government has increased the budgetary allocation to education to 21 per cent of the national budget. Several other strides have been taken already in this short time to commence the implementation of free quality education programmes across the country,” President Bio said during the launch of the FQSE on August 20th 2018.