Annual report on Sierra Leone / Colonial Office.

  • Great Britain. Colonial Office.
Date:
[1948]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Sierra Leone / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/74 (page 6)
    students for teacher-training at two colleges in the Protectorate. Revised salary scales for teachers introduced during the year did not prove acceptable in all respects and were to be the subject of an independent inquiry by a commissioner from the United Kingdom early in 1949. The number of pupils enrolled at both primary and secondary schools showed an increase over the figures for 1947, but accommodation at primary schools in particular remains for the most part inadequate. There was a considerable reduction in the number of serious offences against property during the year, compared with 1947, and the percentage of convictions obtained in such cases has improved. Petty larceny on the other hand has increased. The increase in this: type of crime, resulting largely from unsettled conditions and the rising cost of living, might have been far more serious but for an amendment to the law, which empowered magistrates to inflict heavier sentences than previously on habitual criminals. There was an increase in the prison population during the year, especially in Freetown Prison, where overcrowding became so serious, in July that to provide some temporary relief the detention barracks, which were no longer required by the Army, were taken over as a civil prison. To provide further relief, work was started towards the end of the year on converting the former naval barracks into an annexe to the Freetown Prison. ess during the Year of Projects for Development and Welfare Difficulty in recruiting technical and professional staff, particularly engineers, agricultural officers^ doctors and teachers, and delays in obtaining materials have hindered the full imple¬ mentation of many approved projects and the preparation of new schemes; an understandable feeling of disappointment which is shared by Government has been publicly expressed. It is now clear that the pace of development will be controlled largely by the speed with which the necessary staff can be obtained. It will be some time before the numerous Africans now being trained under the various scholarship schemes are available, and in the meantime it is necessary to employ expatriate officers. A Committee consisting largely of Africans has been set up to review the arrangements at present in being for the appointment of Africans to the Senior Service and for training suitable persons for such posts, and with special reference to scholarship and training schemes, to make recom-