Monrovia – With just a week into the new administration, a youth and student activist is calling on the government to remember its campaign promise and increase its support to education and early childhood development.
Ernest Duku Jallah, a campaigner for quality education in Liberia, has started a crusade, through an online petition to get the government support education and early childhood development by committing at least 20% of the National Budget for FY18/19 to education and early childhood development.
According to Mr. Jallah, quality education is not only a right but also a crucial means for economic development and that there is a general consensus among development experts that nations which fail to make significant progress on education outcomes, will also fail on completing the demands of the Sustainable Development Goals.
He said, many children in Liberia are yet unable to access education, with many more in school but not learning and that this reality is a major threat to our national goals.
“The government currently allots 14.6% of the National Budget to the education sector but much of this this fund is recurrently expanded not on programs but administrative functions and in the end we do not see improvement in learning outcomes among students and this is why we want to government to join other countries around the world to improve its commitment to the education sector but also monitor the way these funds are spent.”
The government of Liberia currently expands US$82.7 million representing 14.6% of the National Budget for FY17/18, with more than half of this amount sent to the Ministry of Education, the functionary of government responsible for ensuring productivity in learning outcomes in schools.
Recently, President Weah reposed his commitment to education at ECOWAS Human Rights Day under the theme “Promoting rights to education towards the ECOWAS Vision 2020.
“The denial of an individual’s access to education is a human rights violation because the inability of any child to get an education because of the lack of school, sub-standard school, or high cost of schooling constitutes a denial of that child’s right to education… today the vast majority of Liberian youth cannot find employment because of the lack of skills, and the many few who have skills are not experts in their areas of discipline. “We need more and better-trained teachers not only for our vocational institutions but for our schools and universities” he said.
The government will by April, this year, submit its first budget to the 54th National Legislature and it is expected to cover development priorities of the CDC-led government.