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?
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
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.
You are a Linguist so you kn…See More
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.
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.
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.
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 ….
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.
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
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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