"An Open Fall on Education “

It is regrettable to see the kind of education our peers received in some parts of the country-Liberia.  The agenda for transformation and the Liberia rising (nation’s vision 2030) creates an avenue for the full realization of quality and affordable education for every child without discrimination. But the implementation of these legal instruments is still a major challenge to government. 

This article reveals actual happenings in some rural communities in Liberia.

I was opportune to have form part of the official assessment team of the Youth Coalition for Education in Liberia (YOCEL) to a nearby town called Gbaigon located in Bomi County with only one hour thirty minutes distance from the nation’s capital (Monrovia).

The Educational situation of the people most especially girls cannot be over emphasize. Teenage Pregnancy has become the order of the day for school age girls and a vocational training skill is never their dream.

The population of the town is estimated to be over 500 hundred and the youthful population constitutes 154 with 68 boys and 86 girls. It was mention by the PTA Chairman and confirmed by the town chief that the total numbers of girls in the town are of school age and most of them have refused to go back to school due to pregnancy or over age problem.   

Furthermore; the only school they had, has gone to a deprivable   condition that creates room for ineffectiveness and poor learning environment.  Many parents have refused to send their kids to school due to the recent fees imposed by government to public primary school.

 My mind is been question, looking at the kind of learning conditions and thinking if these kids will ever have the opportunity to advance their studies.  No text books, No siting capacity in class room that suggest students to sit on the floor, lack of sanitary facilities, three teachers teaching the entire public primary school and the most regrettable aspect is the low enrollment dropping from 250 to 60 students.  

These situations proves that Liberia’s free and compulsory primary education law is not working, cause parents labor very hard to pay their children schools fees considering the fact that most of them are single parents with no adequate skills.

Can you determine a single Future for these kids who have never experience the excitement of education and have no idea of it? Their lives are center around making cassava pitch for their very survival.