Monrovia – Several educational stakeholders of Bong County want the Bong Legislative Caucus headed by Senator Prince K. Moye to improve the state of education in the county and Liberia by extension.
By Albert Fania, contributing writer
The group include the Bong County Students Union (BONSU), the Parents-Teachers Association, Principal Association of Bong School System and the County Education officer among others restated in a eight count petition to the leadership of Bong County at both Upper and Lower House of the Liberia Parliament that objective of the Education Reform Act of 2011 are to govern and regulate the educational system and delivery and management of that system.
The educational stakeholders informed their leaders to reawaken the 2011 Reform act by ensuring the provision of quality education to all citizens at every level of the education strata, promote equal access to educational opportunities for all Liberians without discrimination of any kind and also decentralized the educational system so that it has maximum effect throughout the country.
In their petition the group said the Global Partnership for Education established domestic financing recommendation that 20% of the total recounted budget be allocated to expenditure on education as well as the government of Liberia, in alignment with its commitment under the Incheon Declaration of 2015 and the Dakar Framework of 2000, but has not been working properly for the school system of Liberia.
Presenting the petition to the legislative caucus at Capital Building recently in Monrovia, the Bong County Educational stakeholders disclosed that regardless of these existing laws and commitments, the education system both local and national continue to be plagued with enormous challenges including, inconsistent and inadequate distribution of school supplies, insufficient budget allocations for quality supplies, irregular and inefficient payment of teacher salaries.
They also limited access to early childhood education, limited investment in new facilities, inefficient budget management practices, and limited resources for early childhood among several other challenges facing the sector.
Bong County Educational stakeholders indicated that the challenges have over the past years undermined the quality of education in Liberia, impaired educational experiences and missed opportunities for foundational learning.
With the challenges faced by the education sector in Liberia, the Bong County Educational stakeholders want that august body through the Bong Legislative Caucus advocate for the increase in the FY2024 draft education budget to at least 20% and to ensure that such reflects to the education budget of Bong County, to ensure that the budget expenditures address the issues of school supplies, teacher salaries, school infrastructure development and maintenance, early childhood education teacher’s knowledge enhancement programs in Bong County.
Receiving the petition on behalf of the Bong County Legislative Caucus, Representative Foday E. Fahnbulleh thanked the Bong County Educational stakeholders for the steps taken for a better education, not only in Bong but Liberia as a whole.
He promised to hand delivery the documents to his collogues in their regular meeting for onward discussions.