"What would that take?" The quality of primary education in sub-saharan Africa is abysmal compared to the developed world, Sierra Leone included. I don't know

"What would that take?" The quality of primary education in sub-saharan Africa is abysmal compared to the developed world, Sierra Leone included. I don't know what else is wrong, but not having an educated population is an obvious hindrance towards japanization. To fix that, you'd probably need to: * Create a system for teacher education * Instill a sense of vocational pride in teachers The most critical part in educational outcomes is often the fact how much the surrounding culture values education. To support the improved infrastructure and operators in primary education an education positive sentiment should be instilled using various public education campaigns, including advertising and using popular media such as TV shows to proactively affect public opinion. Soap operas (or equivalent popular entertainment) are a really powerful tool to instill cultural shift if you can get all stakeholders to co-operate. After education is fixed someone should probably invest capital in some industry that can create jobs and wealth. I don't know Sierra Leone so I don't know what that is. If they have lots of natural resources then a land reform where the ownership is divided among many smallholders often is a great way to distribute and create national wealth. It can also backfire badly if you don't know what you are doing (like in Zimbabwe).