Making a difference - by Staneala Beckley

 

This week ’s feature is about a noble and touching memorial of a mother to her young daughter Renate, who sadly passed way from a brain tumor when she was fifteen years old. Sree Gururaja urged Staneala Beckley to share her experience and challenges in the brick and mortar construction of a separate wing of classrooms in a local school and in launching initiatives for enriching the educational opportunities for children and teachers. Staneala lives in Freetown, and as Founding Chair of the Sierra Leone Teaching Service Commission and Fellow of the Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities (AFTRA) continues to extend her professional expertise and UNICEF experience to fulfil every child’s right to education. With the pictures of the shiny new classrooms and happy faces of children, Staneala brings life to her story and purpose of nurturing future generations of her country.

Front view of school building

Brief history of the Tower Hill Municipal School, Freetown

The Tower Hill Municipal School, formerly called the Army Tower Hill School, was established after the Second World War in the early 1950’s in central Freetown. It was intended to cater to the needs of the children of the then Sierra Leone Servicemen, or Military Officers. This brought the school under the direct supervision and management of the colonial army. In 1958, the school was relocated to the present-day Wilberforce Military Barracks because the barracks had already been transferred from Tower Hill and a school constructed for the children of the servicemen at Wilberforce.

In 1959, the Freetown City Council (FCC) under the Mayorship of Councillor Lucien V. Genet resolved to take over the structures left behind by the army to establish a new school for Soja and Granville Town communities. The school was therefore renamed by the Freetown City Council (FCC) as the Tower Hill Municipal School on January 19,1959 with a head teacher, a senior teacher, and six assistants.

Since its establishment, the school has always excelled above 90 per cent in all national primary school examinations, with about 98 per cent passes every year. It has been rated as one of the best of all government-assisted schools, thereby earning the label `The Government Private School ‘.

Who Was Renate?

Renate

Renate Tanya Abosede Williams, was a bubbly, beautiful and friendly young girl. She attended the Tower Hill Municipal Primary School in 1983. In 1989, after completing primary school, she entered the Annie Walsh Memorial School (AWMS), the oldest girls’ school in sub-Saharan Africa, founded in 1849, where she made many friends and excelled in science. In September 1992, she entered the 4th form science stream in pursuit of her dream as a medical doctor. Sadly, she became hospitalized due to an excruciating headache that turned out to be a brain tumour. Her young life ended abruptly on October 10, 1992, after two weeks in hospital, eight days after her 15th birthday, and barely a month into the first term of that school year.

The Memorial Building

As classroom space was severely limited, following the government’s Free Quality Education initiative, I was moved to support the school to provide additional classrooms. Construction started in the first quarter of 2023 and was completed in the last quarter of 2024. The building was formally opened in January 2025 by Mrs. Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, OBE, Mayor of Freetown.

Mayor reading plaque

What started as a two-classroom structure that the Parents Teachers Association (PTA )was struggling with, turned out to be much larger than I had initially conceived. It was as though my Renate was saying, `Come on Mama, you can do better than that!’

Side view of building

The main building comprises two large classrooms on the ground floor, and on the top floor a staff room and a resource room. A smaller building was constructed for the head teacher’s office and a sick bay.

Top corridor

Staff Room

Challenges

During the construction process, the greatest challenges were the rising cost of building materials, poor access to the school grounds to supply heavy equipment and materials, due to the rugged terrain and the school compound being a public thoroughfare (the city council has now solved this problem by erecting a perimeter wall).

Greeting the children

Points of interest during planning and construction

My experience as a UNICEF Regional Adviser in Education was not lost on me when the building was planned. Concepts of child-friendly schools, conducive learning environments, and teacher empowerment flooded my conversations with the architect and contractor. I also benefitted from the ideas of my compatriot and colleague, Dr Cream Wright, a former UNICEF Global Chief of Education.

I am particularly excited by the multipurpose potential of the resource room. It could serve as a training room, a reading room, and a space for watching best practices in teaching and learning when the right equipment and materials become available, and the school grounds are better secured.

Future plans

Plans are underway to equip the resource room with teaching and learning materials, including a smart TV with internet connectivity, and suitable accompaniments, hopefully with much support. My interest in the school will continue, more so in the areas of improving teaching and learning, getting the children more involved in creative activities – artwork and debate, and monitoring their performance against national targets and the performance of private schools.

Staneala with Head Teacher & some teachers

I am profoundly happy that I was able to complete this project that was dear to my heart. I still cannot believe that I did it single-handedly, but I did! The pure joy on the teachers and children’s faces made it all well worth it.

Happy Teachers!