Monrovia – At least 509,619 school going children remain out of school, a 2010-2014 General Auditing Commission (GAC) report has found.
Report by Bettie K. Johnson Mbayo, [email protected]
Titled “Auditor General’s performance audit report on the management of the free and compulsory primary Education,” the report revealed that there are limited infrastructures to accommodate school going age children in the country.
According to the report, the Ministry of Education said the total number of school infrastructures in the country is around 1,767.
The report stated that statistics from the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo- Information Service (LISGIS) showed that the total number of school going age children in the country for the period under audit was 776,167, while the number of school going age children in school is 266,548, and 509,619 of school going ages are out of school.
However, the report averred that interviews conducted with then Minister of Education, Etmonia Tarpeh and comptroller indicated that the Ministry had no direct budget line to cover the provision of instructional materials for public schools.
The instructional materials included curriculums, textbooks, chalks, papers, poster sheets, pens, ledgers, teachers’ lesson plan books, dusters and pencils for distributions to various public primary and junior secondary schools.
Although interviews with the MOE administration indicated that there were no allocations for instructional materials in the budget, during the audit, allocations were noted in the national budget under the budget line (Instructional Services) for numerous fiscal years.
The report established that 2010/11 US$ 24,571,220.00, 2011/12 US$ 30,264,977.00, 2012/13 US$ 31, 413,091.00, and 2013/14 US$ 2,354,704.66 were received by the Ministry.
“Interviews conducted with CEOs, DEOs, and school principals during the field verification also revealed that school administrators were collecting fees, and field visitations with CEOs and DEOs found that they were not carrying out effective monitoring and supervision to validate attendance and the performance of instructional staff due to the limited support,” the report stated.
The GAC said allowances received for maintenance of assigned cars and motorbikes were inadequate.
Also, oil and gasoline provided to them by the Ministry were insufficient to carry out their functions.
“Additionally Parents and Teachers Association (PTAs) of schools in the counties visited also indicated that because of limited monitoring/supervision, instructional staff was not spending the required hours in schools.”
According to the GAC, failure on the part of CEOs and DEOs to conduct regular monitoring and supervision could lead to teachers not spending the required time in classrooms and thus the requisite education standards were not being met by the students.
The report added that in the absence of monitoring of instructional staff, teachers are not thoroughly teaching and completing the required curriculum prescribed by Ministry of Education.
“Chapter 6 Section 6.2.1 (b) and (c) of the Education Law title 10, Liberia code of laws revised act of 2011 requires that “for upper basic education (junior secondary), teachers and administrators shall possess at least an Associate Degree from a recognized teacher’s training institute and a B-Certificate from the authority established under this act is empowered to issue Teachers certificates; For lower basic Education (primary schools) teachers and administrators, at least an Associate Degree for grades 4-6 and a high school diploma with at least one year of post-secondary teacher training at a recognized teachers’ training institution for grades (1-3); the person must also possess a minimum B or C certificate”.
From documents reviewed by the GAC in the Human Resource Department and interviews conducted with school administrators and the teaching staff, it was observed that 54% of the teachers in the classrooms were yet to obtain the required credentials as set forth in the Revised Education law of 2011 for proper placement in the classrooms.
“CEOs and DEOs stated that they are experiencing a shortage of trained teachers in the classrooms as a result, the school administrators recruited under qualified instructional staff to fill the gap.”
The GAC report finds that a total of 346 High School graduates are serving as school principals.
The Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Education has established standards to measure students’ output.
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