Sierra Leone’s Njala University also known as Institute of Languages and Cultural Studies has concluded its four-day celebration dubbed INSLACS Week at the Great Hall of Towama Location, Bo Campus, with the theme “A Unified Sierra Leone.”
The celebration featured student participation in debates, essay and poetry competitions, stand-up comedy, musical performances, drama and cultural performances.
The Director of INSLACS, Claude A. Dimoh, justified the theme in his welcome address as a call to all Sierra Leoneans to be patriotic and hold the country dear, noting that the dignity of the country is a result of the unity the citizens continue to uphold.
He emphasized on the significance of the event, stating that it aims to teach and promote Sierra Leone’s cultural heritage while also testing and exploring the students creativity and intellectual ability.
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He further requested assistance from the supervising ministry, the Government of Sierra Leone, the US Embassy, the British High Commission, the People’s Republic of China Embassy, well-meaning Sierra Leoneans, development partners, and alumni to address the Institute’s challenges in providing professional training for staff, teaching and learning materials and infrastructure including classrooms, laboratories, and equipment.
Speaking at the event, the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Njala University, Bashiru Mohamed Koroma assured INSLACS staff of the Administration’s commitment to their goals and aspirations for putting high-quality education into practice.
He promised that his dynamic leadership would always be ready, willing and able to transform the University with speed, accuracy, and inclusion.
The Vice-Chancellor listed four complementary values, including education as essential to national growth and development, cultural diversity and relativism in education, education as a key to national cohesion, and transforming knowledge into practice, that would enable the growth and development of education in Sierra Leone.
He thanked INSLACS for showcasing the power of the human intellect and stated that knowledge and skills acquired by individuals, rather than the amount of years spent in a classroom, determine growth, development and the ability to reduce poverty.
He added that education, through the transmission of knowledge and the forming of attitudes towards diversity and change, is a crucial tool in the promotion of social cohesion, adding that having transformative knowledge entails using an integrative strategy and treating the systems that sustain it.
