In the years following Sierra Leone’s 1961 independence from Great Britain, their education system was the envy of neighbouring nations. The modern education in Sierra Leone is failing for a number of reasons, most visible being a lack of resources to provide free education to its students. It is suggested that the lack of free education is not the primary issue that needs reform. Instead, the immediate necessary task is to reform the national education system to make it more relevant to the needs of the citizen, as well as to provide services that are sustainable in the long term. Above all, it is imperative to provide education of a higher quality than has been recently offered.

Sierra Leonean educational decay has been caused by political instability and poor management, as well as corruption and turmoil on the macroeconomic scale. This has led to a mass exodus of educators to other nations. This loss is Sierra Leonean education’s most significant problem, and solving it will require greater emphasis on training and increasing teacher’s pay; as well as enhancing teaching conditions. It will also require the establishment of standards that can weed out ineffective educators. Incentives for teachers to remain in-country can be economically taxing, but teachers can be better incentivized to remain if their local teacher training certificates can be converted into beneficial associate degrees.
School headmasters and principals should also be held accountable, and if their schools fail to perform, they should be replaced with stronger candidates. Education costs must be reduced, for if an average Sierra Leonean family cannot afford their children’s education, the risks that these children will be pushed into labour or prostitution increase fourfold.