Monrovia – President George Weah plan to bring in 6,000 teachers from Nigeria to fix Liberia’s messy education system has comes under serious scrutiny by Liberians.
Report by J.H. Webster Clayeh – [email protected]
Some say the plan is untimely and that the government should focus on building the capacity of Liberian teachers instead.
FrontPageAfrica has been out and about downtown Monrovia getting the views of some Liberians on the President’s move.
Romeo Famuleh, Student – UL,
Bringing in 6000 teachers into the country is not timely. President Weah needs to invest more into the education system. We have the Williams V.S. Tubman teacher college here at the University of Liberia and it is not up to the task.
We have some teachers here and are willing to provide the service to their country. So, I think the president needs to reconsider that decision and ensure that he invest more in people like us who are in the field of education.
There are lots of teachers, who are committed to the teaching profession, but you cannot take a man from Monrovia and carry him to Lofa County and the man cannot get his salary to feed his family. You see, that is the issues.
We have teachers who have been rendering their services for over 20 to 25 years and those teachers are finding it very difficult to support themselves while teaching.
The government needs to see how best they can train and give better salary to teachers and not to bring in teachers from Nigeria. I think it is not timely.
Prince G. Brown, Student – UL,
I think it is quite unfortunate for our president to proceed in such form and manner. Our country is not a society that is lacking brain dreams. We have qualified and competence teachers in our country.
The only thing is to build their capacity. They should take our teachers for advance training so that they can come to the classroom and provide their knowledge. But to go to Nigeria and bring 6000 instructors is not in the best interest of our country.
Our teachers need to be paid adequately. The Ministry of education should make sure that our teachers be trained and there should be a test giving to them and those individuals that will pass the test will go in the classroom and teach our students.
Here is the issue, it can be recalled few Nigeria had over 25000 instructors who failed an exam that was giving to them. So, to bring in such instructors into this country is totally out of order. Liberia is not garbage. I think the president needs to rethink his decision.
Mohammed Deygbo, Student – UL,
“For President George Weah to be calling for 6000 Nigerian teachers is not in the right direction. Our president told us that he has inherited a broke economy and so it is not prudent to bring in teachers from Nigeria for now.
There are thousands of our brothers that are qualified. So, the only thing the president needs to do is to build up the capacity of those instructors and professors that we have in the country.
The government needs to send some of them outside to go for study and they will come back to contribute to their motherland. So, on the contrary to go to Nigerian and bring in 6000 instructors from Nigeria, I think that it is not in the right direction. The president needs to rethink his decision.
Samson M. Kum, Student – UL,
“The issue of 6000 Nigerian teachers coming to Liberia is not prudent enough at this critical junction. I listened to the education Minister Professor Sonii talking about bringing some facilities to the teachers, that is to say teachers will have to take test every year to advance their level of teaching.
He also said that they will able to get license before they can teach in the classroom. And if they are not performing in the classroom their license will be revoked.
So, currently we need to see how best to strengthen our teachers and not to go bring in teachers from Nigeria to teach our students. Our teachers need to be trained so that they can be equipped for the classroom.
I think that the education sector has well-educated men. When I went for the confirmation hearing at the Senate, I saw men in that delegation, people who have agenda for education.
So, we can pass through them to see how best we can strengthen our education system and not to go and bring 6000 teachers from Nigeria, it will not be good for us.
Norah Elliott, Student – UL,
I think it is a good thing coming from our president. To bring 6000 teachers from Nigeria will help our system. To step-up our education system we need to have qualify teachers. You know during the past regime we have had a deplorable learning environment. So, we need qualify teachers in our schools.
Bringing in 6000 teachers from Nigeria will help us a lot. And, for our teachers who are here, the government will send them out of the country for advance study. We need more teachers in our country.
For instance, we have seen people in the University of Liberia who have only BSC degree and they are teaching, not only in the University of Liberia but other universities.
So, if we can have people with master’s degree or PHD to teach and then those who BSC can have the opportunity to go out of the country for study and come back, I think that will help us greatly.
Emmanuel K. Wahblo, Student – UL,
As for me, I am in support of that decision 100 percent. Because these days the teachers we have are not sincere to the career they choose. When it comes to classroom management they are lacking such ability.
They see the teaching career as a money making thing, so they are not willing to go through the sacrifices that are involve in the teaching profession. While it is true that the enabling environment should be created the teachers should be willing to make the sacrifice.
The field of teaching is a sacrificial area, you can never see that through teaching jobs, a teacher will build duplex, or you get rich from teaching. I say no, before you chose the field as teacher, you must be willing to take whatever is in it.