Teachers College: Girls Access to Education TEACHERS COLLEGE STUDENT FROM SIERRA LEONE WINS GRANT FROM MARGARET McNAMARA MEMORIAL FUND Recipient Was Teacher, Administrator For Nearly Two Decades, Will Analyze Girls' Access to Education for Dissertation

Frances Koma Bakarr, a doctoral candidate in educational administration at Teachers College, Columbia University, who has worked for nearly two decades as a teacher and administrator in the African nation of Sierra Leone, has received a grant from the Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund of the World Bank. The Margaret McNamara grant was awarded in a international competition among women students from developing nations. Only six fellowships were awarded this year. Ms. Bakarr will use her grant to complete her graduate study at Teachers College, including conducting dissertation research in her native land. Her dissertation will analyze the results of the 1992 Basic Education Act in Sierra Leone. That act was supposed to provide more access to education to the nation's students, particularly girls. When she goes back to Sierra Leone to conduct her doctoral research, Ms. Bakarr will be investigating whether girls do have more access to basic education. Ms. Bakarr grew up in Bumpe, a village of some 1,000 people. She received an undergraduate degree and a postgraduate diploma at the University of Sierra Leone, where she majored in English and minored in philosophy. She taught for several years and then became principal of a high school in Sierra Rutile, a mining community in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone. Ms. Bakarr raised funds to build several buildings at that school, where enrollment grew from 50 to some 700 students. In 1995, Ms. Bakarr received a grant as an International Fellow from the American Association of University Women. Ms. Bakarr wishes to express her appreciation to several members of the Teachers College community, who were very supportive during the time of civil war in Sierra Leone: President Arthur Levine, Raechele Pope, assistant professor of higher education, the faculty in the Department of Educational Administration, and Dr. Sue Nanka-Bruce and Dr. Marion Boultbee of the Office of Student Life. The Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund was organized in 1981 to honor the memory of the wife of Robert S. McNamara, president of the World Bank from1968 to 1981. The Fund has awarded 47 grants to women from developing nations who are studying in the United States. Applicants must be at least 25 years old and enrolled with an outstanding academic record in a U.S. educational institution. They must have demonstrated interest in issues affecting women and children in their countries, and they must be planning to return to their countries within two years of completing their degrees. Teachers College, a graduate school devoted to education across the lifespan and both in and out of the classroom, is an affiliate of Columbia University but retains its legal and financial independence. Some 4,500 students are currently studying for master's and doctoral degrees. In a 1996 survey conducted by the editors of U.S. News & World Report, Teachers College was ranked number-one in the United States.

Published Tuesday, Sep. 18, 2001