Education in Sierra Leone with Particular Reference to Open and Distance Learning and Information and Communication Technologies

Abstract

Sierra Leone became a British Colony after Portuguese explorers became the first Europeans to arrive in 1492. It gained independence in 1961 and became a republic in 1971. The country has experienced a mixture of democratic, civilian and military dictatorships in its 43 years of independence. Currently, civilian democracy is the political dispensation. A devastating civil war, spanning 11 years, ended in 2002. The main reasons put forward by the perpetrators of the civil war were lack of social-economic opportunities overall, lack of access by many citizens to what economic life there was, and tyrannical political rule. Today, Sierra Leone enjoys a liberalised economy and relative peace.