THE NATIONAL TEACHERS ASSOCIATION of Liberia (NTAL) is back at it once again. Not for increment in salary and benefits—no, or for more perks to be added on the job.
THEY GATHERED IN THEIR numbers, calling for the Minister of Education, George Werner and the Superintendent of the Monrovia Consolidated School System (MCSS), Benjamin Jacobs, to step down without yet providing a tangible reason why the duo should be removed.
THEIR CLAIM IS THAT WERNER’S reforms are bogus and not important to the transformation of the education sector. In an interview with a local newspaper, the secretary general of the NTAL, Samuel John, said their decision remained irreversible until President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf could remove the two officials from their respective posts.
“WE HAVE SERVED WERNER and Jacobs’ two separate resolutions since February this year demanding them to quit their services due to their inabilities to improve the education sector, but they think it is a joke,” he said. “This is why we have come to this point of abandoning the classrooms until they adhere to our call as the Constitution places in us the power to allow them to serve or not, even if appointed by the President.”
HOWEVER, IT SEEMS MR. JOHNSON IS definitely not coming to equity with cleans hands and his motives therefore remain suspicious even amid the glaring fact that Minister Werner has been very controversial since his appointment in 2015.
SINCE HIS APPOINTMENT AS Liberia’s Minister of Education—perhaps the youngest in the country’s history—Minister Werner has heralded and go about a change which has never before been seen in the education sector since the cessation of the 14 years of civil carnage.
OVER THE PAST YEAR, ACCORDING to the Minister of Education, they have prioritized the quality of teaching in the classroom. Currently the Ministry says they are testing teachers to assess their capacity. The Ministry also says that they are cleaning the payroll to have efficient savings that can be reinvested in education; saying over US$2 million was saved from just for counties. This is a laudable initiative and deserves all kudos.
STRANGELY, THE MINISTER SAYS, the secretary general of the National Teachers Association of Liberia, was one of those whose names was found on government payroll in Lofa County whereby he lives and works in Monrovia.
“THE MOE AND CSA (CIVIL SERVICE AGENCY) teams are now in Cape Mount and Bomi counties, biometrically enrolling teachers, testing teachers, validating their credentials. We’re confronting systemic resistance to these reforms. The Partnership Schools for Liberia initiative has taken off: free uniforms, no fees, trained teachers who show up daily, parents and communities engaged.
“WE’RE TACKLING AGE-OLD PROBLEMS with domestic financial aid to teachers, otherwise known as in-service teachers’ scholarships. Of the 500 or so on in-service training scholarship, only about 200 are accounted for on civil service payroll. How come? To benefit from in-service training scholarship, you must be on government payroll. We cannot shy away from correcting these systemic challenges because of fear for civil unrest.”
THESE REFORMS DON’T SOUND BOGUS, anyway. However, from all indications, it seems that the teachers don’t agree with these reforms which the Minister is firm on implementing. We cannot completely evaluate these reforms as a newspaper, but our input is squarely based on what we see and what the relevant education stakeholders say.
WHAT WE DULY KNOW IS THAT the teachers and other stakeholders are not in for this. This has even led to a controversy between Minister Werner and the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Kishore Singh, who described the plan as “unprecedented at the scale currently being proposed and violates Liberia’s legal and moral obligations.” The move has also since ignited another public debate and international condemnation by the UNESCO rapporteur on education. So, the teachers are not in this along they have had big voices alongside them.
WHILE WERNER IS NOW making reference to dollars and cents of what some of his revolutionary initiatives have ended up to, the Minister of Education has got to understand that it is with these very people that he is going to work. It might not be a specific individual, it must be a huge number of these same people, whose confidence he does not enjoy at all.
BY LEAVING THE CLASSROOMS—denying Liberian children of their rights to education as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of which Liberia is a signatory to—is not a laudable step, but it shows the depth to which these people disagree with him.