Liberia: The Depth of Lip-Service At MOE
It seems that education authorities in Liberia, specifically these at the Ministry of Instruction are far detached from enhancement and procedures in the sector, disgustingly spewing out tons of excuses and lip companies to the general public. The Liberian instructional method has develop into a free for all, with directors in both community and personal educational institutions across the country performing at will, imposing unaffordable service fees and tuitions on college students that mom and dad simply cannot foot since of the negative form of the economic climate.
With the governing administration alone having difficulties to increase plenty of revenue to pay community faculty teachers’ regular monthly salaries along with other individuals in the civil assistance characterised by threats of strike and hasten promises by appropriate authorities to intervene, it exposes weaknesses in the community sector that personal institutions are exploiting by hiking expenses at excruciating discomfort to mothers and fathers and associates.
It is dishearteningly regretting that amid public outcry from astronomical charges, the Ministry of Instruction would reply that it lacks the electrical power and will to intervene in what is received in non-public establishments as regards expenses. Still, it licenses private establishments to operate under its supervision.
So, you can see the place we are headed in the instructional sector with a toothless bulldog trying to keep look at in excess of a program that wants serious scrutiny and supervision in get to produce the very best final results. But this appears to be not to be going on as indicated by the mountains of outcry each in general public and private educational institutions.
We are even even more dissatisfied when the Acting Minister of Education said not long ago in Monrovia that the ministry lacks authority to control charges in private schools even when mother and father are crying, speaks to the lip-assistance talked about.
For the report, most Liberian mother and father experienced in no way shied absent from sending their kids to college and paying fees for them, but in the wake of a dive-nose overall economy with a shrinking foodstuff basket, non-public educational facilities are constantly hiking expenses without the need of corresponding improvement in high-quality as regards certified lecturers, understanding atmosphere and educational general performance that the Ministry of Schooling states it supervises.
We find it incredibly paradoxical that the Ministry of Instruction would boast that it is on best of the video game when schools less than its nose like the Monrovia Consolidated School System (MCSS) faces fluctuations in teachers’ salaries coupled with non-payment of pensioners and budgetary support, among many others.
These are some of the lip-providers staying outlined below, for the reason that the very least we should really forget, it is the government’s major responsibility to deliver excellent education and learning for her citizens, not just free schooling but just one that is on par with neighboring countries. Regardless of supplying free schooling in general public universities, when lecturers at the University of Liberia downed chalk for weeks in need of enhanced income and other incentives, it would not clearly show words matched with motion.
If the academic sector should really shift forward, we need a complete paradigm change in methods and procedures. In other words and phrases, dynamism is the surest way to commence in revising the sector, not only for the latest era but for posterity.
The men at the Ministry of Education and learning need to wake up from their defensive posture and develop into proactive. When the authorities them selves, like the Minister of Education and learning are jogging non-public universities, we can obviously see a conflict of interest and for that reason, lip-service that permeates the program.