Freetown, 29th June, 2026 – Street Child of Sierra Leone has closed its four‑year Education For Every Child Today (EFECT) project with a landmark achievement: more than 100,200 out‑of‑school children across Sierra Leone, Liberia, and North‑East Nigeria have been enrolled into primary education.
Of this total, 46,471 children in Sierra Leone alone are now in classrooms, exceeding the project’s original target of 96,000 children across the three countries.
“46,471 children who were once excluded are now sitting in classrooms, learning and dreaming again,” said Mohamed Sheku Turay, EFECT Project Manager. “Over 1,000 communities are more aware of the importance of education and actively supporting enrolment and retention.”
At the project’s launch in June 2022, estimates placed the number of out‑of‑school children across Sierra Leone, Liberia, and North‑East Nigeria at 20 million, driven largely by Nigeria’s high exclusion rates.
Today, despite EFECT’s gains, 57 million children and youth remain out of school in West and Central Africa, one of the highest regional totals globally. In Sierra Leone, recent national data shows 108,000 children aged 7–14 are still out of school. Only 64% complete primary school, with learning outcomes remaining critically low.
The EFECT programme, implemented by Street Child Sierra Leone and the Education Above All Foundation’s Educate A Child initiative, with support from the Qatar Fund for Development, combined education with social protection and economic support:
88% retention rate among enrolled children in Sierra Leone, 15,600 caregivers received economic support through the Family Business for Education model, helping families, especially women sustain children’s schooling.
60 schools constructed in hard‑to‑reach communities. Nearly 12,000 additional children enrolled through rural school expansion. Hundreds of teachers trained, including 60 in innovative methodologies and school management committees established, strengthening local governance and community ownership.
Delivering the keynote address, Deputy Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Emily Gogra, reaffirmed government leadership in tackling the crisis:
The first step, she said, was the rollout of the Free Quality School Education policy (2018), which removed financial barriers, raising enrolment to 85% nationally.
Government, she says, has also worked on recruiting thousands of teachers, schools, and school feeding programmes scaled to reach hundreds of thousands.
The Radical Inclusion Policy (2021) ensures no child is excluded due to gender, disability, or circumstance and a new flagship initiative aims to identify and reintegrate 120,000 out‑of‑school children nationwide, with accelerated learning programmes for overage learners and targeted support for girls, children with disabilities, and rural communities.
Nearly 2 in every 10 children in Sierra Leone are out of school. Behind this number are real lives of children whose dreams are delayed by poverty, distance, and inequality. This is not just an education issue; it is a national development issue and a leadership responsibility,” Gogra said.
Founded in 2008, Street Child Sierra Leone has worked with nearly 300,000 children over 17 years, from the Ebola crisis to the Freetown mudslide, and across hundreds of rural schools.
The EFECT project, leaders say, is not just a closure but a transition one that must sustain, scale, and strengthen gains.
“These achievements were not accidental,” said Kelfa Kargbo, Country Director. “They were the result of strong collaboration between government, partners, communities, schools, and families. But we must be honest: there is still work to be done.”
Although the numbers tell a story of progress, it also signals signs of unfinished business: 46,471 Sierra Leonean children enrolled through EFECT, 108,000 still out of school nationally, with 57 million excluded across West and Central Africa.
