At 5:30 in the morning, Mr. Kamara leaves his one-room shack at Kroobay , in the slums of Freetown. He has not eaten breakfast; there is no rice left at home.
His two children are still asleep, but he knows when they wake, they will ask for food. He prays his wife can borrow a cup of rice from the neighbor.
Mr. Kamara is a government primary school teacher in Freetown. Every month, after long days of teaching, marking papers, and struggling with overcrowded classes, he takes home 800 Leones — that is about less than $45. That is less than the price of a single bag of rice in Sierra Leone.
When the Landlord knocks, Mr. Kamara hides. His rent is 2,500 Leones a month — nearly three times his salary.
And a government appointee who plays with his phone all day and chill around with a pint of beer in his office is paid $5000 for doing nothing at the end of the month .
And Mr Kamara”s children are sick often, but he cannot afford a hospital bill. Still, every day, he walks into the classroom with a smile, teaching the children of Sierra Leone to read and write.
He builds the nation, but he cannot build a life for himself.
Like Mr. Kamara, thousands of teachers in Sierra Leone are trapped in despair.
In Sierra Leone, a government primary school teacher, in Freetown earns 800 Leones monthly ($45).
And a head teacher, responsible for an entire primary school, earns 2,500 Leones a month .
Here is the math : over a year, that is only $540 for a teacher and $1,680 for a head teacher.
In districts, towns and villages, the pay is even worse.
Many teachers are “volunteers,” teaching without salaries while waiting years to be added to the payroll.
For example, Secondary school principals in Freetown who you may want to call — the leaders of thousands of young minds — earn mostly only 2,500 Leones ($140) a month.
Even the “lucky” principals whose salaries have been revised make only between 3000, to 5,000 Leones monthly .
And here is it again ; for ordinary secondary school teachers ( SSS)earn 1,000 to 1,200 Leones a month.
Roughly ; that amount is equivalent to that’s $672–$804 annually.
So tell me ; we talk about developing the human resource base of a nation like Sierra Leone with slightly over 7 million people.
And yet we talk about free quality education and they like ! How can a teacher survive on this?
How can they raise children, pay rent, eat, or dream?
The maths is simple and brutal: a teacher’s salary cannot even cover food, rent, and transport. Many are forced into debt, humiliation, and hopelessness.
The government gives schools “subsidies” — scraps meant to keep institutions alive.
Here is the reality in the ground : Primary schools get 10,000–20,000 Leones per term . Multiple this by 3 for each primary school in Freetown.
For junior secondary schools ; they get around 20,000–40,000 Leones, and senior schools 30,000–50,000 Leones per term and multiple each by 3 .
But also , it depends on the number of pupils in a school and that is ; the higher number; the more subsidizes they pay you ; but mostly you can’t get more than 80, 000 per term .
But classrooms remain overcrowded, leaking, and empty of books or supplies.
Teachers are expected to do miracles with nothing.
While teachers collapse under poverty, politicians earn thousands of dollars every month.
They drive convoys of luxury cars, travel abroad, and send their children to elite schools outside the country.
Meanwhile, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), under Francis Ben Kaifala, hunts teachers, parading them at Cotton Tree, humiliating them in the name of fighting corruption and ignoring his paymasters and friends who loot the state in glare .
Yes, the same ACC turns a blind eye to the millions stolen by politicians and government officials.
How can Sierra Leone fight corruption when those at the bottom are punished and those at the top are protected?
How can “quality education” exist when teachers — the backbone of learning — are treated as disposable?
Teachers die quietly, without pensions, without dignity.
They leave behind children who drop out of school because their fathers and mothers — the very people who educate others — could not afford to educate their own.
And still, politicians stand on platforms, thumping their chests about “Free Quality Education.” But what quality can there be when the teacher who carries the chalk cannot afford a meal?
A nation that starves its teachers is a nation digging its own grave.
Come to think of it ; Doctors, lawyers, engineers, presidents — all are born in classrooms.
Yet Sierra Leone pays its teachers less than what a minister spends on a single dinner abroad.
Yet the leaders of the teachers union have become politicians and don’t seek the real interest of their colleagues.
They negotiate and compromise mostly on so called strike actions at the detriment of their colleagues who don’t tout politicians or put on party colours .
It’s like some of our opposition politicians who collect from the rulling politicians at night and on day time in jeeps and orange money .
And they pretend in public as if they speak for the suffering masses .
They ride big jeeps and live big life as opposition politicians and the people’s votes are mortgaged in deals . Yes, Some of them are contractors in government!
What are country !
Until this injustice ends, until teachers are given the respect and pay they deserve, Sierra Leone will remain chained in poverty, lies, and betrayal.
By Joseph Turay
