MTHE Donates Teaching and Learning Materials to USL Amidst Their E-learning Readiness Retreat

The Ministry of Technical and Higher Education (MTHE) has donated 120 projectors, 55 white boards, 120 ceiling mounts and 30 Markers to the University of Sierra Leone (USL) as part of its support to enhance higher learning institution's readiness for E-learning. The donation ceremony was subsumed in a four-day E-learning Readiness Retreat by USL at Dohas Hotel in Bo from 14^th to 17^th October, 2021.

MTHE's Minister, Prof. Alpha Tejan Wurie, noted that the creation of MTHE's Directorate of Technology and Innovation is a deliberate attempt by the Government of Sierra Leone to ensure that higher learning institutions are ready to provide the required quality, especially for the growing number of students that annually access tertiary institutions from senior secondary schools. He admonished USL's Administration and lecturers to properly position themselves in a bid to uphold teaching standards without actually getting a person-person contact with students on a daily basis, but at the same time ensuring that distant-learning students get equal quality in comparative terms with those who sit in class. He mentioned that MTHE, through its Directorate of Technology, has already provided a learning management platform for USL, urging them to be in a position to customize it to suit their institution. "We recognize that with the free quality basic education, the numbers that will go to tertiary education will be one that you will find extremely difficult to be able to access on a person-to-person basis, and therefore, we want you to use technology to outreach to as many students as possible...," he said in handing over the teaching and learning materials to the university.

USL's Dean of School of Postgraduate Studies, Prof. Joe A.D. Ali, commended Prof. Wurie and by extension the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education (MTHE), for exhibiting a high level of commitment to promoting higher education in the country. He entreated all representatives from USL's three constituent colleges to go digital if they want their courses to be more relevant and accessible to a greater number of people.

Prof. Redwood Sawyerr noted that the essence of the E-learning Retreat is to ensure that USL's staff of various departments who have shown interest in launching E-learning programmes are fully capacitated. He emphasized the importance of going through the pedagogical training that will align with E-learning, taking into consideration a lot of hands-on practice. According Prof. Sawyerr, the University has already set up an E-learning centre to guide staffs in developing their E-content, which will eventually inform the basis of the E-learning platform. "We are hoping that when we rise from the retreat, we will be fully ready to put a date to hopefully launch the E-learning system for the selected programmes," he said.