Monrovia – Carlton Boah, the man opting to contest the presidency in 2017 as an Independent candidate has called for collaborative efforts of educational institutions, administrators, teachers, politicians, parents, students and stakeholders in the country to reassess the best possible means of cleaning the mess in Liberia’s educational system.
Report by Willie N. Tokpah – [email protected]
Serving as guest Speaker at a thanksgiving program for senior students of the Grace Baptist School in Paynesville over the weekend, Mr. Boah said it requires a collective struggle to tackle Liberia’s educational conundrum.
He told FrontPageAfrica the fact that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has considered the system a mess indicates that the Ministry of Education, under Sirleaf’s leadership, seems to have no handle on activities of schools around the country, adding that they have lost the moral, ethical, financial and instructional compasses of leadership as it relates to the supervision of schools in Liberia.
“From county to county, town to town, village to village, there are so many mushroom schools that the Ministry of Education does not really know the actual number of schools in Liberia today,” he said. “Schools are self-supervising and practically doing their own thing.”
He said collaboration and encouragement are major hallmarks that might move students to pursue higher education, but registered that educational enhancement can be frowned upon depending on the circumstances or environment associated with it.
“If you are in the midst of fools, they will frown upon your education. If you are in the midst of people who like to see others excel, they will appreciate education and if you are in the midst of people who are full of themselves in one way of another, they will look down on education”, he added.
He emphasized the need for vocational education to be introduced in every institution in the country as a resounding answer to the short supply of educational tools in the country.
This, he said, supports the fact that all citizens may not choose traditional classroom for education, neither may they complete primary or secondary education or have money to go to college and comprehend all things similarly.
Mr. Boah said the introduction of compulsory vocational education to the Liberian education system will be important because most Liberians perform excellent in vocational education—some by training while others do so by apprenticeship and hands-on method.
He promised to make vocational technical education a core part of the curriculum from 6th to 12th grades in both public and private schools across Liberia when he is elected president.
Mr. Boah said the inclusion of vocational education in the national curriculum will further enhance Liberia’s development agenda and create room for more technicians, tradesmen as well as women who will be the crux of experiencing meaningful growth in the country.
“I am speaking of the kind of growth that may put us on par with the rest of the region or the world at large. You cannot build a nation depending on importing technically skilled professionals from other countries; you cannot build a credible healthcare system by relying on workers and experts from other countries.
You cannot build roads by depending on foreign surveyors, engineers, technicians and other needed workers from other countries,” Boah maintained, adding that a solid educational system can be built by relying on Liberian themselves.
He cautioned Liberians against electing recycle politicians in the ensuing 2017 general and presidential elections.