One good turn deserves another. The miserable condition of school Teachers in Sierra Leone has a psychological effect when the mirror is placed on the wall. The reflection of their vote is nothing but disappointment, poverty and frustration. Teachers are now left with no option but to make a decisive decision through the ballot box come 2023.

The outcome of the 2018 elections shows that; teachers are the highest number of the voting population in Sierra Leone. Nevertheless, teachers have a large portion of voters under their control, school going pupils from Junior to Senior Secondary school who are above 18 years can be easily influenced by their teachers to vote out a leader who is not in favor of the teachers. The pupils voted for free education and the teachers voted for the quality attached to the free. In the nutshell, teachers are not looking at the free tutorial fees being paid to school on a trimester basis. They are not interested in the textbooks, sanitary pad, exercise book and the School Feeding Programme for remote schools. All of the above-mentioned are facilities being enjoyed by school children and heads of school and not the teachers. What teachers need is that of; increment of salaries, reassessment, recruitment, payment of Teachers with pin codes, promotion, housing and medical. The Concerned Teachers’ Group who has a representation in the 14 districts has channeled these issues to the SLTU who serves as an intermediary between the teachers and the government of Sierra Leone but to no avail.

However, this so-called Teachers’ Union has paid deaf ears and had remained reluctant and stubborn to present these challenges to the government of Sierra Leone. A meeting was held yesterday at the teachers’ Hotel in Freetown in which the following bodies were represented: the TSC, the SLTU and the Concerned Teachers. Teachers were given the opportunity to express their plight and the conclusion was done by the parent bodies i.e. TSC & SLTU respectively. The meeting was not fruitful as the executive members of the Concerned Teachers’ Group came out with a press statement proclaiming an industrial revolution which starts today 25TH APRIL, 2023.

Power corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Is it that our leaders sleep during the day? Remember that; Our political pary is gradually loosing its strength in the North, East, south and the west. A hungry man is an angry man. Our land has been polluted with “ambassadors of poverty” with their still born promises. You promised to making the teaching field enviable and lucrative in a way that; people will abandon the NGOs for teaching but why the reverse of this statement?

Teachers have regained back their consciousness and are wise enough to make a gainful choice. Hardship is like pregnancy which can’t be controlled. Be wise 👌 you are because we were.