Kabala’s DEC Central School

Kabala’s DEC Central School is the only primary school in the region, it funnels graduating 6th grade students into three junior secondary schools in Kabala.

Every year, typically 100 students complete grade 6 and many choose to continue their education in one of these schools. In 2021, 48 graduating students went to the Kabala Senior Secondary School; 30 students went to Ahmadiyya Muslim Agricultural Secondary school, and 18 students went to Loma Secondary School. We strive to improve graduation rates in Kabala and prepare these students for higher education.

The District Education Committee Central School is located in central Kabala, the capital and largest town of the Koinadugu District. Around 20,000 people live in Kabala with 700 students enrolled in Grades 1-6 at the school.

  • Kabala is a major trading center, with goods arriving from numerous northern districts. Most individuals are supported off of local farming and transportation. Fresh produce such as yams, cassava, rice, and other vegetables are frequently sold along the streets of central Kabala. In addition to produce, goats, sheep, and cattle are also common among vendors.

  • Although Kabala is a major city in the north, many parts of the town are off of the power grid. Solar energy is viewed as the most feasible power source.

  • Although internet is available, there is poor connection towards the edges of the town. Additionally, with the cost of data most individuals are unable to use any services.

  • Kabala has two tribal paramount chiefs from the Limba and Kuranko tribes. They rule over Kabala and all the catchment communities. The land is divided in half, with the Limba chief covering the Wara Wara section, and the Kuranko chief ruling over the Sengbeh section.

    Along with the two paramount chiefs, Kabala has an elected council chairman that oversees major developments in the township.

    In regards to educational programs, the deputy director of education and his team supervise all processes.

  • Traditional medicine is commonly practiced throughout Kabala. However, there is still one main hospital in the region, the Kabala Government Hospital. Doctors Without Borders occasionally performs medical mission trips out of this hospital.

Life in Kabala

  • The World Possible Learning Program in Kabala established the solar infrastructure and present tablets from a program originally set up by CAUSE Canada in 2016. After the funding and programs ceased, World Possible - Sierra Leone was able to revive portions of the infrastructure left by CAUSE Canada to establish the current program.

  • The Kabala World Possible Program is housed in a room in the DEC Central School. The facility is powered by a 50 watt solar panel with a 90 amp hour battery bank. Students can work on 15 Samsung tablets at a time. The tablets are connected to one RACHEL (RACHEL-Plus 1.0), which serves Khan Academy and other educational content.

  • In DEC. Central Kabala, the World Possible- Sierra Leone program leader is Mr. Mohamed Jalloh. He oversees the daily learning sessions with an emphasis on mathematics. He is a community teacher, and has been supporting the program for over 6 years.

  • Since the beginning efforts with the Cause Canada Program, the DEC Central Mother’s club has supported World Possible- Sierra Leone for over 7 years now. The members provide monthly contributions of 10,000 Leones per -member just to support vulnerable children with learning materials like book, pencils, bags, and clothing.

    The Mother’s club also uses part of their contributions as a revolving loan among themselves. The interest generated is sometimes used to support vulnerable children in school along with maintaining the school’s supplies.

  • We have only partially resuscitated this Village Learning Center. We need some help finishing the job.

    The center is using a RACHEL 1.0. We would like to upgrade to the much more powerful RACHEL 4.0. Among many upgrades, RACHEL 4.0 will bring much more powerful student tracking capabilities to our program. We believe we have found a donor for this upgrade and hope to install it this summer or before.

    What we really need is new tablets. The 15 original tablets are more than six years old. Batteries are failing and need to be frequently recharged. Many units have completely failed. We want to integrate our program into the full school day and run the learning center all day long and expand the curriculum to reading. Before we can do that, we need to buy 30 new tablets. We need enough tablets for a full Math and English class. If we can run 30 tablets all day long, that increases the number of tablet hours by a factor of five or more. That in turn, will increase student learning and measured performance in math and also allow us to expand the program from math only to math and reading.

World Possible Program

Can you help us with $3000 to upgrade DEC Central School tablets.

This upgrade will also require upgrading the solar system, but we believe we have found a donor for that.