This week, 1.8 million students in Sierra Leone returned to their desks after schools, which had been closed since the July-August break due to Ebola, finally reopened. Guinea and Liberia, the other two countries most affected by the virus, already welcomed students back to school earlier this year.

For the fifth consecutive week the number of confirmed Ebola cases continued to decline in Sierra Leone, with only nine cases recorded in the first week of April 2015, the lowest number in almost a year. However, the country has suffered immensely with 8,558 confirmed cases and 3,475 deaths.

A recent UNICEF report highlighted the devastating impact the epidemic has had specifically on children. In Sierra Leone 1,451 children under 18 were infected and there are 8,617 registered Ebola orphans.

Returning to the classroom after a nine-month hiatus marks an important step towards restoring normalcy in Sierra Leone. Schools will be crucial in ensuring that children who have been orphaned and traumatized receive the support they need.

Preparing schools: a collaborative effort

Throughout the crisis, government staff, local stakeholders and external partners were communicating frequently, reviewing the situation and moving forward. The GPE Secretariat was in regular contact with UNICEF, the GPE coordinating agency in Sierra Leone to assist in this process.

In addition, US$1.5 million of the GPE funded program approved in 2013 were re-allocated as emergency response. These funds have contributed to preparing schools for reopening through school sanitation, distribution of school preparation and hygiene kits, and the establishment of hand-washing stations. The Global Partnership also provided financial support to the Emergency Radio Education Program that was broadcast throughout Sierra Leone while schools were closed.

Over 1,000 junior secondary schools already reopened earlier this month for the basic education certificate examinations. Students were slow to return to school, and Ebola has been cited as a deterrent. We know that the longer children are out of school, the less likely they are to return. That’s why back-to-school community campaigns encouraging students to resume their studies have been essential.

Challenges ahead

Countries with strong and established education systems are often better prepared when a crisis like the Ebola epidemic hits and are able to rebound more easily. But Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are among the poorest countries in the world.

The Global Partnership for Education has been working with Sierra Leone since 2007 to strengthen its education system. Initially, the focus was on recovering from a brutal, decade-long civil war that finally ended in 2002. However, even before the Ebola outbreak, Sierra Leone was facing significant education challenges in ensuring that all children could go to school and learn (71% of children completed primary school in 2013 according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).

Only time will tell how deeply this crisis has affected Sierra Leone’s education system, and work must be done to ensure that the country is able to rebound and that students can make up for the time lost.

At the Global Partnership for Education, we will continue to support the country through our grants and coordination work with other partners to make sure Sierra Leone gets back on track as quickly as possible.

The following partners have provided support to the government of Sierra Leone to make re-opening of schools possible: African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, British Council, Child Welfare Society, Catholic Relief Services, Concern, Goal, Health for All Coalition, IBIS, International Rescue Committee, Plan, Save the Children, UK Department for International Development, UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNIDO, UNMEER, USAID, US Peace Corps, World Food Programme, World Vision, World Bank.