TKEEP (Tacugama Kids Environmental Education Program) has been running for 26 years and over the years – more than 10,000 kids have participated in the program. On Friday May 14th 2021 the Leadership at Tacugama hosts, the minister of Basic and Secondary Education Dr. Moinina David Sengeh, 21 students from 9 schools; Secretary General of UNESCO Commission; Director of Curriculum and Research- MBSSE; and other staff from the Ministry Basic and Secondary Education. The purpose of this visit was for the team to learn more about, conservation, take a tour in the sanctuary and have an educational session for all 21 students who came from their schools’ Nature Clubs established by the country’s Environmental Protection Agency.
During the visit, the Minister of Basic and Secondary Education, Moinina David Sengeh and the Founder of Tacugama Bala Amarasekaran met and discussed the importance of including topics on conservation and environmental protection in some core subject syllabuses. In an interview Bala said, “We’re very pleased to announce that in partnership with the Ministry of Education, TKEEP will now be able to reach more kids as content from its environmental education workbook have been integrated in Sierra Leone’s National Curriculum” he further stated, “This is the first step towards a much larger collaboration with the Ministry of Education, we’re working on putting in place an agreement which would include further content development, joint monitoring and reporting and teacher training workshops. We thank the Ministry in believing in our work and we are committed to doing more in the coming years.”
In a statement the Minister, Honorable Moinina David Sengeh, expressed how happy he is for another achievement in the ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, he said, “in our new policies, we speak about the 5Cs: computational thinking, critical thinking, comprehension, creativity, and civics and emphasis hands on practical learning. We want to tailor how our children should learn, in addition to integrating Sexual and Reproductive Health into subjects, we are proud to work with Tacugama to include lessons on the environment and conservation in our Curriculum”.
The minister further reiterated the ministry’s commitments to continue working with Tacugama on Environment and conservation related matters, He acknowledged and thanked the remarkable leadership of Tacugama for making the day a special one for especially the children. Honorable Sengeh concluded, “this is how we slowly improve the quality of education we give our children- through systematic investments in the experiences (theory and practice) the students get”.
The Students who took part in the tour and educational session expressed how happy they were especially, it was their first time of visiting Tacugama and seeing live Chimpanzees. They acknowledged and thanked the leadership of Tacugama and promised to take what they have learnt to their communities in schools and homes and promised to keep educating the public on wild life and encourage the public to avoid eating push meet.
