Monrovia – Madam Mary W.M. Nyumah, the president of the National Teachers Association of Liberia is calling on the government to pay more attention to improving the welfare of teachers.
Madam Nyumah made the call during program marking the celebration of this year World Teachers Day under the theme: “Teachers – Learning in Crisis, reimagining the future”.
Speaking Monday at the Headquarters in of NTAL located on 12 Street Sinkor, Madam Nyumah averred that teaching is a noble profession and as such, it offers a great impact on the growth, development and well-being of the students and the nation.
Said Madam Nyumah: “We want to use this occasion to call on the government of Liberia to put a halt to the abrupt retirement or pension of our members without prior notice, a situation we believe is not healthy for our members. We, therefore, appeal to the government that before any teacher can be retired; they should notify them at least one year ahead of Without prior ahead of their retirement plan.”
Madam Nyumah further called on the Ministry of Finance to begin the payment of the retirees’ handshake and other benefits owed them to avoid the “untold hardship” they are faced with.
Recently, President George Weah approved US$1million to pay every private school teacher that did not receive salaries due to Coronavirus.
Added Madam Nyumah: “We want to use this opportunity to express our deepest thanks and appreciation to his Excellency Dr. George Manneh Weah, President of the Republic of Liberia for honoring our proposal to provide compensation to our colleagues in the Private School System who did not receive salaries during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemics. We say a big thank you for approving US$1million to pay our private school teachers. To our administrators of private schools, we implore you to kindly be transparent and honest to submit only names of teachers who have been sacrificing over the years”.
“We want to use this occasion to call on the government of Liberia to put a halt to the abrupt retirement or pension of our members without prior notice, a situation we believe is not healthy for our members. We, therefore, appeal to the government that before any teacher can be retired; they should notify them at least one year ahead of Without prior ahead of their retirement plan.”
Mary W.M. Nyumah, the president of the National Teachers Association of Liberia
Also, serving as Keynote Speaker, Montserrado County Education Officer K. Samuel G.S. Bondo stated that statistics have shown that 62 percent of children in Liberia are out of schools. This, he says makes Liberia one of the countries in the world with the highest rate of children out of schools.
Mr. Bondo, at the same time, urged teachers to re-think the education system during and after the Coronavirus pandemic. He added that teachers have a goal to ensure that all children have access to free and compulsory primary education. “The children have lost significant time of learning during the pandemic and we need to design a more innovative means to bring them back to speed, using the local environment,” Mr. Bondo said.
Mr. Stevenson Seidi, Officer-in-in-Charge of UNESCO Liberia, reading a joint statement issued by UNESCO, International Labor Organization, UNICEF, and Education International praised the teachers for the critical role they play in achieving inclusive, quality education for all.
He added that this year’s World Teachers Day has a greater significance in light of the challenges that teachers have faced during the COVID-19 crisis.
“As the pandemic has shown, they make a crucial contribution to ensuring continuity of learning and supporting the mental health and wellbeing of their students,” Mr. Seidi said.
“Today, we collectively celebrate teachers for their continued commitment to their students and for contributing to the achievement of the 2030 target under the Sustainable Development Goal 4. We commend educators for the central role they have played and continue to play in responding to and recovering from this pandemic,” the Officer-in-in-Charge of UNESCO Liberia added.