There are details about how you can sponsor a child to receive an education at the new Christian Primary School in Kabala, Sierra Leone at the project’s blog. The school is an effort pursued by Fraser Valley Christian High School in Surrey, British Columbia, in conjunction with Christian Extension Services in Sierra Leone.

I have mentioned the new school in a previous Acton Commentary. The cost of sponsoring a child is $200. Some more details about the education offered by the school follows:

The school offers grade 1-4 education to start. They will have certified Christian teachers who will be teaching the Sierra Leone government core curriculum and like our Canadian Christian Schools will integrate Biblical worldview and values into all they do. The biggest advantage to these children will be the low teacher/student ratio of no more than 35:1. By African standards this is simply amazing and will make all the difference in the child’s education.

Check out the school’s blog for more information about how to sponsor a child and answers to some other frequently asked questions.

I’ve been reading a lot of Richard Baxter lately, and one of the things he emphasizes in many of his writings is the importance of a good, basic education. So, for instance, he writes in his treatise, How to Do Good to Many, that in order to “promote knowledge of necessary truth,” we need to first “set up reading schools.”

Once people are literate, we should “give them good books, especially Bibles, and good Catechisms, and small practical books which press the fundamentals on their consciences.”

He continues,

If men that in life, or at death, give a stated revenue for good works, would settle the one half on a Catechizing English School, and the other half on some suitable good books, it may prove a very, great means of publick reformation. When a good book is in the House, if some despise it, others may read it, and when one Parish is provided, every year’s rent may extend the Charity to other Parishes, and it may spread over a whole Country in a little time. Most of the good that God hath done for me, for knowledge or Conscience hath been by sound and pious books.

It’s within our ability to put not only books in the hands of those who need them, but to provide children in Sierra Leone with the education to make proper use of such books. It would be hard to find a better way to spend $200.