Monrovia – The Speaker of Liberian Children Forum, Jutomue Doetein wants the Government of Liberia to scale up its investment in the education sector of the country.
Report by Gerald C. Koinyeneh, [email protected]
Doetein said for students to pass successfully in the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) and other public tests such as the University of Liberia entrance examinations, schools should be equipped with laboratories, libraries and trained teachers.
Addressing a news conference in Monrovia recently, Doetein attributed the mass failure in the 2018 WASSCE exams to the lack of laboratories at most of the schools in Liberia coupled with the ‘existing sub-standard schools with unqualified teachers’.
He said although major stakeholders in the education sectors are aware of the vices that are causing the system to be ‘messy’, not much has been done to fix it.
“Many Liberian Educators and leaders have realized that the Liberian Education System is a mess, but sadly not much effort has been exerted to fix the system. Moreover, after realizing another mass failure from the 2018 WASSCE and the University of Liberia recent entrance result, it is about time the for the Ministry of Education to start working strappingly to making the education system the best our generation needs.
We do not appreciate the mass failures that Liberian Education System continues to experience. It is about time that national government invests more in education,” he urged.
Speaking further, the Speaker of the Children Forum called on the Ministry of Education to ensure that schools should meet a set of criteria before sending their students for WASSCE, and requirements should include laboratories, qualified teachers and conducive learning environment.
He also made a passionate appeal to the ministry to extend the date set for the WASSCE re-sitter exams to afford more students who perform dismally in the past exams to register.
According to him, the MOE has announced August 6, 2018 as the date for registration, and if it stands, many students will miss out because they are not aware of the deadline.
“Let me say that many 12 graders do not even know that this is going on. So, if the registration for WASSCE deadline remains on the 6 of August, I do not see many Liberian Children or 12th graders going to university this year,” he averred.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Prof. Ansu Sonii said the ministry’s top priority is to put in place the right mechanisms that enable students come out of high schools with basic skills as well as passing the regional exams successfully.
“My concentration right now is to ensure that the infrastructure required to make the students come out of High school with some skills to help themselves and to come out of high school passing WASSCE in the way that satisfies us,” Prof. Sonii stated.
It can be recalled that authorities of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) Monrovia National Office in July this year announced that out of a total 33,979 senior high students that wrote the exams in April 2018, 21,580 candidates representing 65,15 performed failed; while only 11,544 candidates representing 34.85 percent made a successful pass in individual subjects.
However, Minister Sonii, speaking to a team of reporters recently revealed that of the 11,544 candidates who were declared successful, only one student passed in all nine subjects and two candidates made a successful pass in Mathematics and English.
To be considered successful high school graduates, he added the rest will have to rest of the students will have to re-sit the exams to pass in either English or Mathematics; something he said is a challenge for the Ministry of Education.
Prof. Sonii: “Out of the over 33,000 students, only one student passed all nine subjects and two students passed both Maths and English. Many students passed Maths and many students passed English. But only two students passed both subjects and passing Maths and English are the prerequisite of passing high school as far as the WASSCE curriculum is concerned.”
“Even the 11,544 students we considered passed, some of them passed in five subjects, while some of them passed in four, but before any college accept them, they have to do the re-sitter in Maths or English or both to be considered a full high school graduate. That is the challenge that we have, and it is not a small challenge.”