Student experiences at single-sex schools
I spent Tuesday through Friday of last week at St. Joseph’s Secondary School for Girls and St. Francis Secondary School for Boys in Makeni, which is a town located three hours north of the capital city Freetown. These two schools are the oldest and some of the best performing schools in the northern region of Sierra Leone. I had great conversations with students and teachers at each school and participated in various school activities.
St. Joseph’s Secondary School
For one of our writing assignments, I asked the students to write about the woman that inspires them the most. Each student was then invited to share their response in front of the class to practice public speaking.
“The woman that I admire the most is our beloved principal Madam Cecelia Barrie.”
St. Francis Secondary School
While I was at St. Francis, I participated in the school assembly and even learned the school song. In one of the government classes, I split up students into two debate teams, and each student was given 30 seconds to persuade the class on the following topics:
village vs. city
married vs. unmarried
money vs. happiness
female president vs. male president
live in Sierra Leone vs. live outside Sierra Leone
Wizkid vs. Davido
cassava leaf vs. krain krain
Facebook vs. WhatsApp
The rest of the class then determined the winner for each round based on applause. These students were very persuasive! There are a lot of future leaders in the making at St. Francis!
