Sierra Leone Grammar School
The CMS obtained a lease on a massive building with arches on all sides at Regent Square, Freetown, that until recently had been the house of the Governor.[1] Opening on 25 March 1845, the CMS Grammar School was the first secondary education institution in Sierra Leone and the first in sub-Saharan Africa for Africans.It also began to provide general education for the emerging middle class in the Gambia, Gold Coast and Nigeria in addition to its original role of preparing students for entry to Fourah Bay College.The progress report indicates the curriculum: "The first class have read part of Nicholl's Help to the Bible, and have got up the natural, historical and political geography of Greece, and the account of Greek idolatory.The historical, political and natural geography of Asia has been prepared for examination, and thirteen good maps have been drawn..."[8] In 1851 the school bought a six-acre farm and pupils were taught to raise cotton.[9] Sporadic attempts were again made to introduce practical training from the 1920s onward, including weaving and spinning, carpentry, bookbinding, cardboard modelling and the elementary arts, but without much success.[1] Despite limitations in the curriculum, the CMS Grammar School played an important role in training administrators, doctors and teachers throughout English-speaking West Africa in the first half of the 20th century.After being run by the Church Missionary Society for more than a century, the Government assumed greater responsibility for paying teachers' salaries and providing grants.