Monrovia – The Liberia Research and Development Networks, (LRDN) celebrated its third anniversary at the same time, launched over 80 dozens of copy books to be given free of charge to kids of primary schools in three rural counties: Nimba, Bong and Margibi.
Mr. John S. M. Yormie Jr., Executive Director of LRDN said the organization’s primary goal is to promote education and one way of doing so, is to contribute to the education of the younger generation mostly in rural Liberia. Yormie further pointed out that there is no budgetary support allocated for research work. And Liberia is lacking behind other neighboring countries that prioritize the work of research.
“We are committed to enhancing social and natural science research support to scholars and public agencies for research and education activities. To conduct quality research through innovative data collection and analysis, build capacities and provide consultancy services,” he said.
The Program held at the I-Campus in Monrovia over the weekend, brought together LRDN executives, guests, well-wishers, young volunteers and kids, who graced the occasion, while the Destined Liberian Kids did spoken words poetry about education.
Serving as keynote speaker, Madam Sondah Geepea-Wilson, of SEARCH, spoke making education a priority for Liberia. Ms. Geepea-Wilson focused on the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) fourth pillar, which dwelled on quality education, for which the deadline in meeting the SDG goals is in 2030, which is not very far.
“Liberia once marveled in the sub-region and across the world for its high standard of education, is now significantly lacking behind in all aspect of education as compared to other African countries. Now, the education sector is faced with so many challenges which have resulted into four outcomes; enrollment, huge number of out of school children, wasted Government resources and unskilled teachers, mostly unqualified,” she said.
“To date, Education only receives 15 percent of the national budget below the minimum 20 percent benchmark. Base on the Dakar Framework of Action, the Declaration of 2015 and the Global Partnership of Education, a 2019 research conducted by the Coalition for Transparency and Accountability shows that over the last decade Liberia’s annual budgetary support to education is at 13 percent. And we are told that in the Dakar Framework, it should remain at 20 percent,” she said.
Mrs. Wilson further said that in August 2019, USAID reported that Liberia is behind all form of education statistics with the percentage of primary school student’s enrollment at 44 percent. Citing an example, she said the confirmation of the poor performance of students in the national examination and Universities entrance exams are evidence. And in addition to the problem, high schools and universities are constantly graduating students for public service, which remains devastated in the country’s current dispensation of corruption, cheating, disorderliness, sexual exploitation and abuse becoming the hallmark of the education system.
Yormie, who is also a young Diplomat at the Liberia Foreign Service Institute, is also an author of, “Liberia in the Colorful World of Diplomacy,” said his team decided to establish the LRDN, which is aimed to be a leading research and development institution.
“We are dedicated to advancing, applying and facilitating high standards of social and natural science research practice for a wide variety of audience within Liberia and abroad,” He stated.