Monrovia – Officials at the Ministry of Education (MOE) are requesting an additional US$7.8 million in budgetary allotment to run operations smoothly at the ministry.
Report by Gerald C. Koinyeneh, [email protected]
Appearing before the Joint Committee on Ways, Means, Finance & Development Planning and Public Accounts & Expenditure of the Legislature at the ongoing budget hearing, the Deputy Minister for Administration, Latim Da-Thong stated that the Ministry needs the additional funds to implement several projects over the next fiscal year.
According to Mr. Da-Thong, the money will be used to upgrade 25 junior high schools to secondary school levels, renovate schools and laboratories, pay 1250 newly recruited teachers and purchase vehicles and motorbikes for County and District Education Officers, among others.
The current amount projected for the Ministry of Education for Fiscal Year 2019/2020 is US$61 million. Out of the amount, the Government of Liberia is expected to contribute US$43.3 million and US$17 million will come from donor support.
However, if the ministry’s request of US$7.8 million additional funding is approved, the MOE budget will be projected at US$68.939 million.
The Breakdown
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has outlined that out of the US$7.8 million additional appropriation it is requesting, US$3,495,000 will be used to pay the yearly salary for 1,250 newly recruited teachers.
US$1,296,000 will go to instructional services for the purchase of 16 vehicles and 128 motor bikes for County Education Officers (CEOs) and District Education Officers (DEOs).
In addition, the Ministry intends to use US$3 million for the purchase of 78,000 chairs to provide seating capacity for students, renovation of schools and procurement of laboratory equipment.
Mr. Da-Thong, in a passionate appeal to the Legislative panel stated that 25 junior high schools have been earmarked to be upgraded to senior high/secondary school level.
He said dozens of schools across the country have not gone under renovation for the past three decades.
He called for the need to recruit and trained additional TVET teachers to replace the aging teachers.
The Joint Committee, headed by Representative Thomas Fallah, thanked the Ministry for its presentation and stated that the request will be reviewed by the committee.
The Ministry of Education has been engulfed with several problems over the years including the inclusion of teachers on payroll, renovation of dilapidated school buildings across the countries and lack of proper seating capacity for most of the students in rural communities.
Every year, dozens of volunteer teachers, along with students demonstrate in demand of the teachers’ wages. This often results to the disruption of instructional activities.
Almost all of the public schools across Liberia are operating without functional laboratories.
CEOs and DEOs have complained of lack of vehicles and motorbikes to effect monitoring and evaluation of schools under their control.
Officials at the Ministry of Education believe if the proposed budget is approved and implemented for FY2019/2020, this will serve as a big boost in the process of improving the education sector.