Pre-service Emerging Issues 2nd Year

Unit 68: Representative Democracy and GovernmentCivics and democracyObjectives: By the end of this unit you will:• Understand the idea of representation and how it is applied in Sierra LeoneIntroduction: So far we have looked at civics and citizenship, values and democracy.In this unit we will look at representation and how to instil the ideas of democracy in thepeople of Sierra Leone.Activity 1: Representation: Read this case study and discuss the questions below.When the Unity primary school resumed classes last year, the school decided on a newsystem of selecting class representatives for classes 4 – 6. The roles of the classrepresentatives were to be meeting with teachers, parents and the school managementcommittee to resolve issues. They were also to be part of the decision making body inthe school. The pupils got excited about this new system because they have to choosetheir own representatives, instead of being selected for them.The pupils all agreed that they wanted a representative, who was punctual and regular inschool, honest and hardworking. The representative besides has to be a good exampleto follow. They also suggested that they want to vote through a secret ballot.The election date was chosen and three days before the chosen date three candidateswere nominated in each class and allowed to campaign till the Election Day. It wasagreed that the campaign message will be limited to explaining your potential or abilitiesyou have that would make you fulfill all the roles stated above.The Election Day came; the three boxes were labelled and put behind a screen in frontof the class. All the ballot papers were signed by the class teacher before the votingstarted. All the students voted, the votes were counted in the presence of the class andthe winner declared. The whole class was happy.QuestionsWhat do you understand about representation from this story?Why was the class happy with the election?How does this reflect the idea of democracy?Which qualities did the class expect of their class representative?Activity 2: Representation in Sierra Leone: Sierra Leone is a constitutional republic (itbecame a republic on April 19, 1971 after a series of uprisings and problems betweenindependence from the UK in 1961). Sierra Leone has a unicameral legislature(meaning a single house of Parliament) and the most recent elections were held inAugust 2007 with a runoff election for the President held in September 2007. ThePresident is directly elected by the people.The structure of government consists of the Legislature (the representatives of thepeople), the Executive (chosen from among the representatives) and the Judiciary (thejudges who are usually appointed by the government.16