Freetown, September 4, 2025

The Sierra Leone Teachers Union (SLTU) has officially declared a nationwide strike set to begin on Monday, September 8, 2025, citing persistent government inaction on critical education funding and payroll concerns. The announcement follows months of suspended industrial action and repeated appeals to the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education.

In a formal notice addressed to the Minister of Education, the SLTU backed by its sub-associations CPSS, NaCOHT, CHTVI, and NSA outlined nine pressing demands that remain unresolved despite prior correspondence and negotiations. Chief among them is the delayed payment of school fees subsidies for the second and third terms of the 2024/2025 academic year, as well as the first term of the current school year.

Key Demands Include:

  • Immediate disbursement of overdue school fees subsidies.
  • A commitment to timely subsidy payments at the start of each term.
  • Rectification of anomalies in subsidy disbursements, including underpayments.
  • A review of per-pupil subsidy rates to reflect current inflation and economic realities.
  • Financial support for government-approved schools currently operating without funding.
  • Resumption of teaching and learning material supply, which has been halted for three years.
  • Recruitment of technical and vocational instructors to strengthen middle-level manpower development.
  • Reinstatement and payment of backlog salaries for teachers suspended from the payroll in July 2025.
  • Settlement of long-overdue Performance-Based Financing (PBF) for primary schools.

The union emphasized that these unresolved issues are undermining the government’s flagship Free Quality Education initiative and jeopardizing the reopening of schools nationwide.

“The aforementioned concerns are a severe hindrance to effective teaching and learning,” the SLTU stated. “Addressing them would promote the attainment of government’s flagship programme of free quality education.”

Attached to the strike notice were previous correspondences detailing the union’s grievances, which have yet to receive substantive government response.

As the school year approaches, the SLTU is urging swift government intervention to prevent widespread disruption in classrooms across the country. The union’s rallying cry “Long Live Teacher Solidarity! Long Live SLTU! Long Live the Republic of Sierra Leone!” underscores the urgency and unity behind the action.