3.5.5. Improving quality of instruction: Government made significant contribution in this area by developing new curricula and an incentive scheme. The pilot project of this scheme is for 1,200 primary schools and 150 junior secondary schools in Kambia, Tonkolili, Pujehun and Kenema districts. The scheme provides financial reward to schools based on how well they manage and maintain and how much learning and improvement take place over time. Every school and district will be rated and ranked in terms of performance in the primary, junior and secondary schools. The Government also launched a school feeding programme. 3.5.6 Maintained a Zero Ebola infection rate and succeeded in strengthening health care system • Government has absorbed into the payroll 500 nurses who volunteered their service during the response • To date, payments have been made in respect of 103 deceased health workers • Extended the Free Health Care Initiative to Ebola Virus Survivors and a comprehensive package catering for their special healthcare needs has been provided • Established two public health laboratories in the Western Area and one in each of the regional headquarter towns of Bo, Kenema and Makeni. One of these, in the Western Area, is fully equipped to test for Zika virus • An Emergency Operational Centre National Public Health Agency for capacity building has been established at Cockerill to coordinate field activities during outbreaks. • Government has taken concrete steps to deal with the shortage of medical practitioners. Forty-three (43)medical doctors, two (2) Radiographers and four (4) laboratory scientists, from various African countries have been contracted • Additionally, have undertaken to sponsor more than 30 locally trained young doctors to pursue specialist courses in various fields. • At the same time, middle grade Community Health Officers are being trained in life saving medical and surgical interventions to act as Physician Assistants where there are either no doctors or they are in short supply APRM Sierra Leone | Annual Progress Report • A second paramedical school has also opened in Makeni to complement the existing one in Bo that has served this country so well • The Teaching Hospital Complex Act and the Postgraduate Council of Health Specialties Act have been promulgated • Preparations are underway for the construction of a five hundred (500) bed dedicated to the proposed Teaching Hospital at Kerry Town • In order to address the space limitations in our hospitals nationwide and in the Western Area in particular, 100 bed capacities each has been commissioned to be constructed at Waterloo, Lumley and Mountain Cut communities. In the education sector, serious interventions have also been made to ensure quality instruction with the following initiatives: • A pilot incentive education scheme in 1,200 primary and 150 junior secondary schools in Kambia,Tonkolili,Pujehun and Kenema districts . The scheme provides financial rewards to schools based on how well they maintain as well as how much learning takes place over a period of time. Every school and district will be ranked and rated in terms of performance in the primary, junior and senior secondary school levels. • Launched a school feeding programme. 3.5.7 Introduced and implemented a National Social Safety Nets Scheme The Government of Sierra Leone in collaboration with the World Bank and UNICEF established a Social Protection Policy in 2011 which has culminated into a Social Safety Net programme to support extremely poor households and vulnerable communities throughout the country. The programme was launched today by His Excellency, the President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, in Magburaka, the headquarter town of Tonkolili District. It is financed by a US$7 million grant from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), a US$300,000 grant from UNICEF, and US$1 million from the Government of Sierra Leone. Overall, the programme seeks to identify and assist poor and vulnerable households across the country, including those affected by the Ebola outbreak. 41