From Discontinuity to Continuity: Tertiary Education Institutions, Conflict and Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone

Abstract

The decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone has attracted various explanations. In the paper, the role of the education sector in the making of war and in promoting peacebuilding is presented. The paper contends that it was the inequalities within the education sector that led to the politicization of student union politics, which ultimately resulted in militant student union politics, and the reinforcement of a predatory economic system that was insensitive to the plight of the students. The inability of the political establishment to gravitate toward education reform led to riots that ultimately fed into the prowar narratives of the battle-readied youth who took up arms to fight against a predatory political system. After the war, however, tertiary institutions, backed by propeace education and youth empowerment educational reforms, have been transformed from being "violence brewing institutions" to peace and development nation builders. The paper concludes by arguing that a public-private partnership in the management of the postconflict education reconstruction reform would further enhance the consolidation of a responsive, propeace, and peoplecentric educational system in Sierra Leone, a country that is still determined to come to terms with its destructive past.