‘An empty bag cannot stand upright’: The nature of schooling costs in Sierra Leone

Elena Samonova, Dympna Devine, C. Sugrue, D. Capistrano, S. Sloan and J. Symonds

International Journal of Educational Development, 2021, vol. 87, issue C

Abstract: Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world with a literacy level of 51%. The government has oficially abolished school fees; however, families still have to cover various education-related costs for their children. This paper analyses the nature of the schooling costs in Sierra Leone. It shows that despite the abolition of school fees, schooling costs remain prohibitively high. Based on field research – which involved the observation of schools and interviews with teachers, pupils, and parents – the paper posits that institutional factors may prevent the reduction of these costs.

Keywords: Schooling costs; Education; Africa; Sierra Leone (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S073805932100153X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:injoed:v:87:y:2021:i:c:s073805932100153x

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2021.102500

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Educational Development is currently edited by Stephen P Heyneman

More articles in International Journal of Educational Development from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().