Making education more equal in Sierra Leone

Students at a primary school in Makeni, Sierra Leone, where an education revolution is underway. — © 2023 The New York Times Company

ANY exasperated parent might be forgiven for wanting a daughter like Alimatu Sesay, a highly motivated 16-year-old who can’t afford schoolbooks but borrows them from wealthier classmates and studies the texts outside every night with a flashlight because her tiny home is crowded and has no electricity.

Alimatu is one of seven children, her dad died years ago, her mum is illiterate and she sometimes must go without eating all day when money is tight. But she is a brilliant student on a path to fulfil her dream of becoming a lawyer because of an education revolution under way in Sierra Leone. (And when she becomes a lawyer, she says, she’s going to buy her mum a house.)