Kakata, Margibi County – The Bureau of Teachers Education at the Ministry of Education, (MOE) Wednesday, November 9, 2016, embarked on the administering of evaluation test to over 1,500 classroom teachers in Kakata, Margibi County.
The test which is administered to the following categories of teachers; Regular, Supplementary, Volunteer, and cohort respectively are intended to evaluate teachers and clean the Ministry of Education massive payroll of ghost names.
Speaking in an interview with the Liberia News Agency on the campus of the Lango Lippaye High School in Kakata on Thursday, a Consultant at the Ministry of Education, Madam Olivia N. Shannon (one time Direction General of the Liberia Broadcasting System, LBS) said that the purpose for administering test to all public School teachers is to determine the content knowledge capacity, the training needed and to use the result to make informed administrative decisions of each teacher.
Madam Shannon further explained that the test is not meant to delete and grade any teacher and as such it is to help MOE in order to properly deploy and redeploy teachers according to their level of competence.
She however warned that any teacher staying away or refusal to take the test will be considered ghost and will be dropped from the payroll.
She said the test is offered in two (2) main subjects Mathematics and English adding is intended to improve the educational system of the Country.
She disclosed that there are some teachers in the classroom that are high school dropout that are teaching 9th and 12th graders in some schools as high school graduate, teaching 12th graders.
The consultant of the Ministry of Education expressed that the test will identified incompetence teachers and ghost names on the ministry’s payroll in order to have excellent sector.
Madam Shannon disclosed that the test will be administered in Kakata, Marshall, Gibi starting with Kakata District.
She lamented that the test expected to be concluding on November 15, 2016 adding that their challenges are misinterpretation, among others.
She said that teachers who will stay away or refuse to sit the test will be considered ghosts and will be immediately dropped from the government payroll.
For her the County Educational Officer Madam Gorma Minnie said that over the years she has had serious challenge of ghost names in the County.
Madam Minnie said she has identified over 200 ghost names and more are still to be identify adding even during the registration of teachers some names and individuals were been booked as more be after the test.
She disclosed that those names that will be identified through the testing and Biometric process will be replaced.
Meanwhile, Margibi County Education Officer, Gorma Minnie said since the local office of the Ministry of Education has discovered over two hundred ghost names from the ministry’s payroll in the county.
She said there are many proxy teachers in the county that are doing the actual teachings but share the salaries with another person who sits home.
“We will ensure that these things are minimized to the level that others teachers that are not on payroll gets there so that they can receive their just salaries for the work done”, Madam Minnie furthered.
She also indicated that the situation was a total embarrassment for the education system of Liberia to see teachers who are molders of future leaders to engage in unscrupulous act that will continue to degrade them.
