TODAY AT FACEBOOK

COCORIOKO  is starting a new column today, titled : TODAY AT FACEBOOK.

Our men will now scour the social media to find very interesting, enlightening and instructive debates about matters of national concern in Sierra Leone. Often, these eye-opening debates take place in the social media and they disappear into oblivion with only a selected number of people reading them.  The ideas and suggestions contained in these debates are therefore wasted.

Now for the records and for the purpose of bringing these opinions and suggestions to the attention of the bigger audience,  COCORIOKO  will start featuring the FACEBOOK  debates (devoid of personal attacks, name-calling and irrelevance ) that we consider thought-provoking , interesting and useful for public consumption as we all seek answers to the matters that affect us in Sierra Leone.

The first debate that we are featuring today is on the plunging educational standards in the country. It is taken from the Facebook page of one of the most eloquent and vibrant voices in the social media—One-time practicing journalist, Mr. Idrissa Conteh, who now works for the UN.

Idrissa Conteh
When Educations Crashes in a Country…!

 

“The New Age” newspaper portrays our country in bad light! The front page lead story should read:

“Koroma Mortgages Salone to China”.

Koroma is a singular noun and should therefore agree with the verb to mortgage which should also be in the third person singular in the simply present tense.

Our youths have no knowledge about conjugation and subject verb agreements!

Most of our youths know only Krio with which they bluff especially for those who have a mastery of the Freetown based accent.

See the police guy who who writes bunkum! Can this officer write a short incident report?

We have no value for education and people will spit fire because I have raised this sensitive issue about the collapse of education in our

country.

The question is, where will the Krio language take our youths?

TambaYama Lebie Krio will take us to Down Bay !
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· 14 hrs

 

Idrissa Conteh
Idrissa Conteh Ha ha ha. That’s the correct place, Maada TambaYama Lebie!
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· Reply · 14 hrs

 

Almamy Razk Seray-Wurie Tun
Almamy Razk Seray-Wurie Tun Politics of Language VS Standardization Leakages: Maintain one’s mother tongue or first language or lingua franca is necessary and that should not stand on the way of mastering English Language Skills….
Please make sure the two are separated
*Falling standards of everything has more to do with our attitude than the language we speak
* Krio people had a tough time merging or separating the two words: Krio & Creole
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· 14 hrs

 

Idrissa Conteh

Idrissa Conteh Sheikh Almamy Razk Seray-Wurie Tun, if your children complete secondary school education and cannot express themselves in the country’s official language, this situation can’t make you proud as a parent.

The children have very limited chances of succeeding in life. The situation painted here makes a vivid illustration about the collapse of education in our country.

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· 13 hrs · Edited

 

Almamy Razk Seray-Wurie Tun
Almamy Razk Seray-Wurie Tun It takes a lot to make students master English Language skills. The issue is making our Education of Quality…. to express oneself in English can be a lifelong process (not saying we must not keep a standard leakage proof)
You are a Linguist so you knSee More
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· 13 hrs

 

Idrissa Conteh

Idrissa Conteh I used to spend a lot of time with my boys when they were in Sierra Leone. I was so worried that they spoke English with strong Krio pronunciation. The Krio ‘r” is pronounced deep down the throat and when English words are accentuated in the same manner, it becomes so irritating.

The two boys actually spent at least 6 months going through language drills before they were finally integrated.

The rudiments of learning are reading, writing and having the capacity to read and understand.

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· 7 hrs · Edited

 

Wilfred Leeroy Kabs-kanu

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Umaru Bobor
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· Reply · 13 hrs

 

Ahmed Adams Sesay
Ahmed Adams Sesay Hahaha lolz
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· Reply · 13 hrs

 

Ahmed Adams Sesay
Ahmed Adams Sesay It’s literally going to take us somewhere down the drain…
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· Reply · 12 hrs · Edited

 

Mohamed Asmieu Bah
Mohamed Asmieu Bah Atomic no kill me with laugh as for the newspaper front page i doubt the competence of those who call themselves editors
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· 13 hrs

 

Alimamy Silla
Alimamy Silla Exactly! They are scribblers.
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· Reply · 5 hrs

 

Wilfred Leeroy Kabs-kanu
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Gibrill Kanu
Gibrill Kanu It’s nice one, but positively help to find solutions to such, as a true patriot Sierra Leonean.
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· 13 hrs

 

Abdulai Koroma
Abdulai Koroma I used to go along with that perception, but with my study of languages and linguistics, I donot think the Creole is wholly responsible for the poor construction of English in Sierra Leone. Agreed educational standards have plummeted, but prior to independence people were talking the Creole language and were doing well with English. People stopped standards 5and 6, used to write good English.I think what is responsible is lack of self motivation. When we were going to school, we were always glued two our small transistor radio, listening BBC news, doing so we inculcated new vocabularies and expressions. We huddled to the British council, Sierra Leone and American libraries. We were voracious readers. Think about it nowadays, kids and adults are not interested in reading. Tho days whenever a friend is reading a book, we used to jostle for it. The reading culture is lacking.
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· 13 hrs

 

Alimamy Silla
Alimamy Silla Now the radio, TV programs are mostly in krio…. After the war every public official wants the “grassroots” to understand.
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· Reply · 5 hrs

 

Kemy Solar
Kemy Solar Very true
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· Reply · 4 hrs

 

Wilfred Leeroy Kabs-kanu
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Mohamed Asmieu Bah
Mohamed Asmieu Bah The editor don’t know agreement of subject and verb
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· 13 hrs

 

James Castro-Webber
James Castro-Webber Every Country has its Lingua Franca. In the case of.Sierra Leone, it is Patois which most People do call Krio. I was talking to a Teacher in Minnesota Public Schools, they don’t do Grammar anymore as being mentioned by Idriss. The Spanish Man does speak English with a Spanish Accent, so is the Chinese. This is all boils down to the Fact of what we do mean by Standard & who determines it.
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· 13 hrs

 

Medish Mlk Obasanjo
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· Reply · 13 hrs

 

Tiangay Elaine Gondoe
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· Reply · 12 hrs

 

Osman Tholley
Osman Tholley Atomic, I do not agree with you to use somebody’s photograph to criticise him/her on the basis of his/her grammatical error. I consider this as an act of humiliation. Some people are victims of the political situation of our country, a circumstance beyond their control.
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· 12 hrs · Edited

 

Wilfred Leeroy Kabs-kanu

Wilfred Leeroy Kabs-kanu The kids do not read anymore . At almost mid-60, I have a garage and basement full of books ; books on any topic you can imagine.

On Sunday, I just bought 26 more books from Amazon on journalism and politics. They will start arriving this week. I can have my own library now.

The secret of good writing is reading. I have never met a voracious reader who is not a good writer. During school days, we used to race and compete to finish reading the James Hardley Chase , Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot, Perry Mason detective series. We also competed to read the African Writers’ Series . We walked miles to go to friends’ homes to borrow books. We joined libraries and proudly displayed our library cards. Ask how many people today know the locations of libraries in their communities.

Reading does not only improve your writing skills; it also broadens your intellectual horizon.

As far as speaking good English is concerned, spending all your time speaking Krio can certainly undermine your intonation and expression. Let us be honest. It is our lingua franca, but it destructive , if it is our only source of communication. Let us encourage our kids to listen to shows and programs on radio and TV where they are certain to improve their pronunciation, intonation and expression. I am not saying they should ” POTOMALIZE”. However, they should learn how to pronounce words correctly.

Krio is not the only culprit. Even our local languages affect our expression. I have noticed that many Temne speakers struggle to pronounce the word “Chapter “. Mende speakers too have words they struggle to pronounce well. It is the same with Fula, Lokko and Madingo speakers.

You want to ask too if English Grammar is taught in our schools today. In our days, there were the BRIGHTER GRAMMAR SERIES which were well taught from Class 1 to 7. You noticed that even those who did not go to college spoke and wrote good English in those days. I knew an old man who was a watchman at Bo Reservation. He did not finish high school, but he was a walking encyclopedia of knowledge. He even helped us with Maths.

We should also blame the quality of teaching today in our schools and colleges. I know many people will get offended , but it is true. We do not get quality teaching in our institutions anymore.

I can go on and on and on.

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· 12 hrs

 

Wilfred Leeroy Kabs-kanu

Wilfred Leeroy Kabs-kanu We should be recording and saving some discussions on Facebook for purposes of record keeping.

I am going to start a new column in my newspaper, titled : “TODAY AT FACEBOOK “. If people do not mind, I will republish educative discussions like this one. ATOMIC PEN has a lot of these in his page.

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· 12 hrs

 

Alimamy Silla
Alimamy Silla An excellent idea
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· Reply · 5 hrs

 

Wilfred Leeroy Kabs-kanu
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James Castro-Webber
James Castro-Webber The issue here is that the whole Educational System is changed with the Use of Computers. I totally disagree with those who try to make Krio a Culprit. Now look at this. I was talking to a Lady in Minnesota from New York. The Guy I was with was a Limbs. I placed the phone on Speaker, not anything Private. When once I finished the conversation, the Guy told me “dat person nar Mende”‘ & he was right. I learned Conjugation in English because I studied Latin & French. I don’t know if the problem has to do with Foreign Infiltration or something else. But again we have never devised an Educational System to suit our Needs. Money nor dae
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· 12 hrs

 

Sallia Fawundu
Sallia Fawundu I don’t think it’s the Krio language necessarily. It’s the absolute resistance to command any language. How many can write good Krio? How many can actually speak proper Krio? Same with many of the other languages. Many of the youth cannot speak or write any of their mother-tongues properly.
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· 11 hrs

 

Mohamed Swaray

Mohamed Swaray OH MY GOODNESS. WE ARE DOING OUR SELF, THE DAY YOU KNOW YOURSELF AS A PERSON OR A HUMAN BEING. STARTING FORM THAT DAY WHAT EVER YOU RE DOING IS FOR YOURSELF NOT FOR ANYBODY.

SO WHY WE ALWAYS BLAMED GOVERNMENT OR OUR LEADER’S FOR OUR OWN BENEFIT TOMORROW
LET’S STOP BLAMING PEOPLE FOR OUR OWN GOOD TOMORROW. JUST GET TO KNOW THAT ALLAH KNOWS ALL WHAT IS GOING ON….

JUST THINK THAT EVEN YOU WILL BE A LEADER TOMORROW SO HOW WILL YOU THINK THEY WILL THINK OFF YOU OR TALK ABOUT YOU. LET’S JUST THINK WE WAS NOT BORN WITH A LANGUAGE SO WHAT EVER YOU CAN ABLE TO SPEAK OR HEAR THANK GOD…

IF YOU CAN ABLE TO SPEAK GOOD OR HEAR GOOD LANGUAGE THAT’S FINE
IT’S YOU OWN BENEFIT BECAUSE YOURE GOING TO DIE WITH IT …

THANK GOD YOU TURN DEAF AN DOM ….

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· Reply · 11 hrs

 

Elias Bangura

Elias Bangura English ‘ain’t’ English anymore. English isn’t English anymore. Choose one.

‘She wants to sivilise me. I been there before.’ Huck Finn, Mark Twain.

Give me the real McCoy… if you can, or hold your peace.

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· 11 hrs

 

Issa Davies
Issa Davies Atomic, I am a little bit confused. Is this post about wrong use of English of a show of some licentious photos that were posted by someone who wrote incorrect English?
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· Reply · 10 hrs

 

Idrissa Conteh
Idrissa Conteh I didn’t understand your question, Issa Davies. You may want to rephrase it. I don’t know what you’re looking for as information on this post.
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· Reply · 9 hrs

 

Issa Davies
Issa Davies It seems as if those photos have drowned the message you are trying to send out. That is how I decode it.
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· 9 hrs

 

Idrissa Conteh

Idrissa Conteh The issue here is not about the photos, Issa Davies. It’s unfortunate that the photos are attached to the posts sent out by their authors.

I just wanted to illustrate how the level young people has dropped in education. See More

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· 9 hrs

 

Issa Davies
Issa Davies Indeed Atomic. Education has declined drastically in our country. We are all laughing stocks – from the politician to the pupil in secondary school. Listen to some of them when they debate in Parliament and those in the Executive. Where are we heading?

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· 9 hrs

 

Idrissa Conteh
Idrissa Conteh I still don’t know what makes people so superior in Freetown! Most youths can only boast of attending shows and night clubs but with no education and no suitable employment!

· Reply ·

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· 9 hrs

 

Wilfred Leeroy Kabs-kanu

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Lilian Conteh -Morgan
Lilian Conteh -Morgan They murdered the queens language. Gosh 😂
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· Reply · 8 hrs

 

Alimamy Silla
Alimamy Silla It was a massacre! Murder is too mild.
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· Reply · 5 hrs

 

Wilfred Leeroy Kabs-kanu
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Vibbianna Sarah Tarawally
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· Reply · 7 hrs

 

Mamgella Conteh
Mamgella Conteh Very sad indeed.
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· Reply · 7 hrs

 

Idrissa Conteh

Idrissa Conteh Dr. Wilfred Leeroy Kabs-kanu has said it all. I don’t have much to add to it. Youths are more interested in watching Nigerian movies which they consider as the cradle of civilization and enlightenment.

The Krio language has only open syllables and this explains why 99℅ of Sierra Leoneans can’t articulate closed syllables! Pathetic.

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· Reply · 6 hrs

 

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Mariama Olamatu Kamara
Mariama Olamatu Kamara Lol.so interesting.They don’t know subject and verb agreement which is Concord. It is also important for some students to know when and how to use dear,there,their and dare.As you can see d police using dear in that context.Too bad
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· Reply · 4 hrs

 

Kemy Solar
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· Reply · 4 hrs

 

Sylvester Maada Edwin
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· Reply · 4 hrs

 

Wilfred Leeroy Kabs-kanu

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