Which Way Is Liberian Education System Heading Again?

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Which Way Is Liberian Education System Heading Again?
By bkb
Created Oct 5 2009 - 5:13pm
By:
Hne Nhoueh Landford, M.Sc.
There is a raging debate going on in Liberia and the Diaspora about the direction in which the Ministry of Education is taking our education system. The appointment of Dr. Joseph Korto to the Minister of Education position has proven to be quite a setback to improving our education system and could put a damper on the successful Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) program in Liberia. In three years of his appointment, he has done little or nothing about crafting a genuine education policy for the Administration that will bring about a greater sense of urgency to the task of reforming the education system. For many years, we have had an education system that has not been transformative, empowering and worthy of a great nation. I hope we learn from past mistakes and change the manner in which we deliver education to our masses.
Since the Minister’s appointment, the Ministry has not focused on getting teachers and principals into under-performing schools in leeward counties or on giving schools a curriculum and testing system that accurately and fairly measures students’ preparedness before sitting for the region-wide West African Examination Council (WAEC) exams. There are no data to drive instruction or teacher evaluation, among other measures in the counties. As a result, many of the students in schools in underdeveloped counties perform poorly in WAEC-administered exams.
According to The New Democrat News Online, “Korto run Ministry of Education has admitted that it does not even know the number of employees on its payroll while also, for the first time, conceding that it does not know how many schools the government has built.” If this is true, Korto must be fired immediately. I believe the Minister does not know what is at the core of the curriculum currently being offered to students in any of the senior high schools across Liberia. If the Minister does not know how many schools the government has built, then the current educational system is in disarray.
Our education system needs a paradigm shift, and our country needs to take steps towards improving education quality. Reforming the educational system in Liberia won’t be easy but should be a national priority. We need a paradigm shift in the education system that will ensure students who graduate from the system can read, write and have the requisite technical and other skills to either enter the universities, polytechnics, training colleges, other post secondary institutions or become employable.
Educators, policymakers in Liberia and Diaspora Liberians must show concern about low funding, weakening teacher morale, absence of textbooks, inadequate infrastructure, inefficient administrative procedures and structures, and under qualified teachers in our school system. We should think about overhauling the current system and begin to dialogue about changing the antiquated system in place. And reforms must rely on local skills and knowledge, not on donor assistance.
For any country to educate its citizens and prepare its children for the challenges of the future, a persistent debate on education, its reform and direction is required. Unfortunately, in the case of post-war Liberia, there is lack of genuine debate about educational reforms. The education reform should be a national priority and should be an urgent national concern; and the absence of debate in the intellectual parlance could harm future growth and may once again increase the illiteracy rate. The unsuccessful free primary school scheme in Liberia shows how paramount it is to come to terms with debating education reform. Free primary education for all Liberians is a good idea. In and of itself, it is not bad because it should be part of any comprehensive conversation based on the challenges facing the nation; but to make the entire project about free education will be irresponsible.
It is a well known fact that Liberia’s educational system has not served the country well. Because of this, the country is lacking skilled labor and is incapable of taking control of her own natural resources. The government must promise the Liberian people, and deliver, education reforms that will propel the country into the 21st century. The number of technical high schools and polytechnic schools in the country needs to be increased. We also need to increase spending and budget allocation for Tubman University in Harper City, Maryland County, so that students graduating from technical high schools will be encouraged and assured smooth entry into the university.
The government, with the help of donor countries, has done well in building new schools in some areas of the country; and after many years of deterioration and a nearly dysfunctional educational system during the civil war years, education reform will be more paramount than ever in order to revamp the system. The solutions the country needs in its educational system are not limited to free primary education. Reform is needed in the structural development sector as well. It is about how relevant the system is to national development, how accessible it is to every citizen and how sustainable the system is in the long run.
It is unfortunate that Ma Ellen’s government has failed to hire the right professionals to take charge and to oversee the education system in our country. We need a national dialogue about education reform. It is not all about free primary education, but the quality of education offered to our children as well as making sure the best resources and deliveries systems are allocated to educators.
I believe that the educational policies introduced in the past 35 years have contributed to all of the problems in our educational system. We need to reverse this system, which is based on the curriculum that prepares students to take the WAEC exams. We do not have to base our education system on the British West African education model. This model is unimpressive and has almost ruined our nation’s education system. The national review for our decaying education system should focus on decades of political instability, poor management, corruption and general macroeconomic turmoil. The most significant factor that led to the decline and decay of our education system was the war and the exodus of well trained education professionals to other countries, most especially the USA.
The free education program currently in its implementation form is a good idea however; it has been forced down our throats by the IMF. The Liberian government has no choice but implement it as part of its PRS program. In lieu of this, the government did not think through it much, let alone address the political and socio-economic issues that had led to the failure of the current education system. We need education reform in Liberia that will bring our educational system more in line with the rest of the world. Research has shown that quality education starts in the formative (basic) years, and that, therefore, if educational reform is to be implemented, it should focus more on basic education, adding life and technical skills to the curriculum to broaden the knowledge of students at the basic level (elementary and Junior high schools) before they proceed to secondary or technical level where they could specialize in certain elective courses from the beginning.
The political situation in our country has improved dramatically since 2005 from what it used to be. The macro-economic situation, by contrast, has not improved as dramatically, but has gotten somewhat better although poor management and corruption still largely persist. This is an opportune time for the government and stakeholders to begin to tackle the most important issues that has confronted us for many years, our education system. First, the retention of quality, well trained teaches has been the most significant missing link in our education system. There needs to be more emphasis on teacher training. Serious efforts should be made to improve the condition of teachers, especially at the basic level throughout the country. Motivated teachers produce good quality students, and quality students make better citizens. Liberia needs to provide better conditions for teachers and demand better results.
The government has to step in to provide resources that will ensure that teachers are properly trained and their conditions of service improved to match, at bare minimum, their counterparts in the private schools. Teachers should also be made accountable when their students fail, and there should be a career development program to ensure that teachers receive relevant and up-to-date training in the subjects they teach. They could be required to retake different levels of certification exams to ensure promotion, for example. The lack of qualified teachers in the field has turned teaching into a dead-end job, where teachers are not as esteemed as they used to be in the old days. Thanks to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for the Kakata Teachers Training Institute (KTTI) and the Zorzor Teachers Training Institute (ZTTI), the teacher training institutes are back in business.
Even in the private schools today, there are so many so-called teachers who have not had any professional teacher’s training whatsoever. People should at least be made to study and take a teacher certification exam before they set foot in the class room to teach. This will ensure that the profession is for people who really want to be teachers and not people who turn to teaching as a last resort. Certificates from teacher training institutes should be converted to some sort of degree program (say an associate’s degree or A.A.) so that it can provide a basis for further education in the field. These are hard choices, but they have to be made if we want the system to succeed. Teachers play such a critical role in education reform that teachers and the situation in the classroom must be what the reform is all about -- not how many years students have to be in school to be considered educated.
The review of the education system should be an on-going process where the national curriculum is regularly reviewed to reflect the developmental needs of the country. Student achievement, especially at high school/technical level, should be attached to some real life goals. For instance after high school, students should be able to take up responsibilities that require minimal training such as become cashiers or bank tellers. In other words educators and business people should come together to design the school curriculum so that students are well prepared to take up above-minimum wage jobs when they leave school. The system should be made flexible enough to allow people who were not able to continue to a tertiary institution after their high school education to go back to school easily after years of work. If this happens, businesses will be better off hiring people with high school certificates. Off course it is important that government creates the necessary conditions for these kinds of jobs to be created rather than the sort of buying and selling that is the order of the day now.
My last point concerns school management. I think public schools, from junior high to the university level, should be run by people with both education and business backgrounds. With a well-defined set of goals and performance measurement, school managers (such as County Education Officers and principals) should be made to recognize that when company managers fail at their jobs they are removed; when politicians fail to deliver, they are voted out; and when schools fail to educate properly, their managers should be booted out.
About the author: Former Assistant Director of Education and Training @ Mount Wachusett Community College , Gardner , Massachusetts . Member of Africa, African-American, Development, Education and Training Institute (AADERT) Springfield College @ Springfield , MA.
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