‘Hot Air’: University of Liberia, WAEC Cannot Not Be Trusted

THE RECENT SUCCESSFUL challenge of the entrance and placement results of the University of Liberia by candidates who were upbeat about their performance—not the ones released by the administration of the UL—has shown that the UL has all along been lying to Liberians.

WHEN OVER 25,000 school leavers allegedly failed the entrance examinations of the University of Liberia in 2013, the country—and the world—was riled as it showed—at least that was then what we thought—that our education system had plummeted to the lowest ebb.

NEGATIVE HEADLINES WERE strewn across the world’s major news network. An irate President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf would go on to label the sector a mess and promised a thorough clean up the system. And so she did with the appointment of the reformist, George K. Werner, who promised to move it from the worst in the doldrums to the best the country, could boast of. And he’s on to it.

ALONG WITH ITS BROTHER in arms the West African Examination Council (WAEC), these two institutions have made it seem like nothing good is coming out of Jerusalem, but WAEC was recently nipped in the bud when Armstrong Gbessagee challenged the result and it emerged that he actually came Division 1.

FOR QUITE A WHILE, the University of Liberia has been crying for a monumental increment in its budget, a cry which can be heard from West Point to Soweto, lamenting that they are in dire straits. However, not once have we ever gotten a report, expenditure or audit, on how previous money has been expended.

PERHAPS IN THIS plea for more money, it seems the University has embarked on a campaign to discredit itself inadvertently using desirous candidates as the ones to be thrown under the bus.

IT BOGGLES ANYONE to think and believe that 25,000 candidates would sit an entrance examination and not a single person would earn a passing mark. 

IN ALL OF this educational misadventure, it’s the students who have always borne the brunt of the lampooning from every spectrum of the society. They are criticized for being unserious, lazy and less motivated and to top that, unable to compete with their colleagues in the region.

AND SO THEY have taken the blame for what is entirely beyond their fault. With no system and integrity lacking in teachers, our students became susceptible to bribery from primary to the tertiary level. With no role models and in a society where thieves are honored, they believe that stealing, not hard toil, is the quickest way to fortune.

BASED ON THIS vilification and many more, what seemed, perhaps, to be a concocted planned has been devised to paint school leavers and prospective high school graduates as bunch of numbskulls whose 12 years of being students have been one of nothingness.

WHILE WE AREN’T disputing that indeed the system is a mess and is in shambles, but let’s be fair, when students are not performing well, who is to be blamed? Teachers. They play an integral role.

LIBERIAN STUDENTS ARE not dull. What they lack is confidence—confidence in themselves, in a leadership which is repeatedly failing them. It is because of this lack of confidence many dare did not challenge the spurious announcement that came from the University in 2013 but we salute the courageous who did so this year and has proven that the University of Liberia and the West African Examination Council (WAEC) has not been blowing anything but fear wave down the hearts and minds of Liberians.