During the early days of Princess Promise’s partnership with Love One Another, we noticed a pattern in the public exam performance of our girls. In order to move forward into secondary school, each student has to pass a country-wide exam. We quickly realized that most of the grades they scored were discouraging and just slightly above the Sierra Leone Government’s passing mark. We knew we had the opportunity to change the trajectory of the girls’ future through these important exams. This was how the idea of an after-school tutoring program was conceived. 

The after-school tutoring program aimed to have girls come in for extra tutoring in the afternoon during the school week. We recruited a team of teachers from each grade in primary school and secondary school. The tutors provided our girls with extra help on the content they’ve already covered during their classes while also giving the girls lessons in areas they would cover in their future classes. 

Princess Promise went further to create a conducive atmosphere for learning. We provided each girl with textbooks recommended by the Ministry of Education, a bus was bought to help transport girls, and meals were served at every tutoring session.

At the start, there were challenges to getting the girls where we wanted them to be in terms of their academic performance in public exams. But, the recent scores from the National Primary School Examinations (NPSE) show that we are getting there. In a national exam that is scored at 500 marks, the girls scored between 280 – 300 marks. This is above the government passing line of 220 marks. From 2020 to 2021, our girls’ scores increased by 9.4%, a staggering improvement despite the challenges that the past year introduced. 

The after-school tutoring program has yielded positive effects on the performance of each girl’s public exam scores. We are proud of their hard work and thankful for the opportunity to continue to offer programs that expand the academic development of our girls.