When the day gets closer
The people begins to wonder
From the rivers to the borders
From every hamlet to every village
From every county to every town

The nation red, white and blue above Mt. Barclay
Beneath the Cavalla River are dove, rising sun, palm tree, ship

And around the Executive mansion eyes glimpse the crowded Monrovia
Influx of them from far the hinterlands with blank pockets
Struggling, scrambling to make the day for tomorrow
Yawning and yelling all hours are marketers
Weeping tears along the bumpy roads as eyes testify Monrovia Police are petit traders

But here and there to get meals for the kids like a war of no gun sound
Let’s climb hills along Kpekedu
So as we fall down town for refuge
Let’s move around Capitol Hill
And see those Suv, Nissan patrol
Those big shots with the pockets

And you there with folded arms
Resting in beautiful huge palaces
While we run down in dawn to Joba

While we go to squeeze up in Jorpen Town
You then run again to and from the Atlantic Ocean
Like an orator of today independence
Standing by the way side in sorrow of lad and gal with torn cloth
Like an orator of today independence having not much but to ask is there a hope ahead?

I want to know, still yet not knowing when Papa will come
Like an orator of today independence moving along the Somalia Drive with
the flag as if compatriots are not there

Grieving high in hearts, where we go now
*Homes so like bitter ghettos, roaming poverty stricken gal, lad
Resting somewhere Kendeja pouring the money to wine and dine with my big Cigar

Like an orator of today independence so to be ignored again

Mohammed Salue- sy,
mohammedsy952@gmail.com

What continues to be a public discourse in the country is the issue of education. So many times have been huge outcries about this one system.

Dozens of scholarly papers have been published by veteran scholars about how to reform education in Liberia. But what seems to be ambiguous is whether the architects of such a poor sector are the students, education or national government. Liberia as a nation struggling to compete with neighbouring countries has come a long way since her establishment in 1822.

There is no symptom of hope for students in Liberia pursuing education. With all of these dangerous descriptions been attributed towards the system by national leaders, questions linger on the minds of so many citizens.

A. When will the system be qualitative?

B. Who are those to be involved in making the system good?

C. How effective are the laws governing the system?

Before proceeding to inject any other points in such an essay, let me recount a synopsis of this entire educational system. Our education in most recent time has been branded as corrupt, poor, shambles, chance-medley; muddle etc.

The system is a mess on grounds of so many factors. Principally of these factors include sex for grades, bribery and deception, review educational curriculum, lack of competent instructors.

 Review Educational Curriculum

Educational curriculum needs to be addressed and be taken into serious consideration so as to be in line with modern realities, especially at secondary and tertiary levels.

Sex for Grades, Bribery and corruption

Are another age old problems that must be eradicated.

There can never be a way forward to improve the system. With this commentary bringing me to the disturbing news in the local dailies can now allow me to inflate on the recent breaking news. Momentum has been high in every nook of the country as over thirty-three thousand students were fully in gear to write the exams on Monday, May 23, 2016.Barely few more hours to the exams was the official voice of WAEC on the news that WAEC has been postponed to June 27, 2016.

Reasons cited for the postponement of WAEC are as followed:

A. Leakage of test on Konola Campus as a result of the center been burglarized

B. It would be an injustice to other students who have been preparing for the tests on one hand, on the other hand students benefitting from its leakage.

Brief History of WAEC

WAEC is an autonomous body that is responsible to conduct examinations for West African countries. The council was established in 1952 with its headquarters in Accra, Ghana. Liberia became the fifth member of the council in 1974 thus joining Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia.

Blunder on the part of the Educational Authorities

If the argument of the cancellation of WAEC is due to the assertion that it was stolen in no way defends WAEC points, Firstly as a reputable body charge with the sole responsibility was to provide tight security for its storage.

Unfortunately, WAEC is now weakly justifying herself by attributing the cause by schools. I have heard WAEC authorities on several local radios specifically the communication officer of the Ministry of Education, Mr. Maximillian Blatten struggling to assert that they are making all necessary efforts to bring the perpetrators to investigation.

Besides; the minister of education George Kronnisayon statement on a local radio on Monday Morning has proven to be hazy. On the Prime Morning Drive, when quizzed about whether there will be an investigation to be launched into the saga, he responded by saying it is expensive .My question then now is it not necessary?

Later on again, Mr. Blatten said investigation will be carried out while on OK FM during Lunch time, what a dramatic irony! WAEC is now been economical with the truth. There are genuine reasons WAEC are hiding to the public prompting  them to cancel the exams as opposite to the quote on quote “Test Leakage “Are they not mindful that the public are cognizant that there were massive news reported by ninth graders during their exams this gone  week about their numbers.

Can WAEC Reprint the Exams Again

From my perspective as a religious follower of the Liberia education system can enable me not to believe it. According to them they need an amount of USD 70,000 to USD 80,000 to reprint the tests when in fact core issues of security, logistics are not yet address.

This is just a travesty and clever tactic by Wace and the ministry of Education. I am of the belief that the same tests will definitely be administered. Let WAEC and the ministry of Education be made to decode that this is a big disgrace for Liberia again.

Effects of the Postponement on Schools

Liberians at times brand their educators as flippant, irresponsible and so forth. Though it is so harsh, but seems to have iota of truth. The essence of degrees is to bring complete revolution to the system. But this is not the case with Liberians. Students from distances in the hinterlands cum Monrovia have become extremely economically challenged with this news. Thousands of them have to return back homes with little or nothing.

Recommendations

To curtail the consistent leakage of tests, WAEC needs to take serious actions against school authorities for what they termed as flexibility fees

Introduce a stringent monitoring and evaluation programs to fast track all activities few weeks prior to the examinations

3. WAEC as an autonomous institution must go beyond its principal duties of just administering tests but rather having a week or weeks’ workshops for all candidates writing the tests.

4. As an examining body WAEC should penalize all those who shall be involved in aiding and abetting its leakage.

5. Lastly, if WAEC wants to avoid occurrence of such in the country principals, parents, and students must be made to help in reporting any malpractices. WAEC can succeed in preventing the reoccurrence of such malpractice if these recommendations are fully heeded as a means of helping them in the nearby future. And finally, I write.

About The Author:
Mohammed Salue sy is a Liberian by birth. He is currently a student of Economics at the University of Liberia. The author of this article is an emerging writer with over dozens of articles and poems

The persistent commencement convocations of many tertiary institutions annually in Liberia have become inevitable regardless of the prevailing huge level of unemployment. The myriad commencement ceremonies by those tertiary schools of post war Liberia must be cross examined with keen attention to know its essence.

What Is The Essence?

Before expanding this article at length with the relevant information let me distinctly underscore three key terms of the phrase “The proliferation of Thousands of Graduates Amidst massive Unemployment”

Proliferation –means growth by the rapid multiplication of parts. A swift increase in number. Once more, graduate as a noun refers to a person who has received a degree from a school. While the diction unemployment in term of an economic stance point is defined as a situation where some people who fall within the ages of the labour force, capable and willing to work are not able to gain befitting work to do.

With explanations of these terms, I am duty bound and beholden to juxtapose employment and unemployment rate due to its relevance of the subject matter under scrutiny. An unemployment rate is the percentage of the working population which is not employed at any given point in time.

Proceeding to Liberia as an exceptional case study with the proliferation of so many graduates without employment is extremely alarming.

The nation highest institution of learning conjugated with other universities as Cutting ton university College, The United Methodist University, The African Methodist Episcopal University, African Methodist Episcopal Zion University are moving very high with respect of graduating hundreds of students in many disciplines. Graduates of these universities are doubling, quadrupling each year amidst the huge jobless growth.

Facing challenges of getting jobs, pursuing Master’s degrees and making meaningful contributions towards the nation building process are gradually becoming chronic in the society. Analyses of graduation commencements have postulated to us that there are nearly ten thousands graduates per year.

Holding constant statistics from the December 2015 convocation of the university of Liberia shows over 1750 graduates in respective courses as the business college dominates with over one thousand students.

The September 2015 Cutting ton Fifty fourth commencement program also put out 554 graduates as Business College tops the day with 91 students and above all in most time was the united Methodist university graduation which featured 592 students. A total of over three thousands students in three months period from September to December.

There are still no jobs available for these young graduates many of whom are now peddling ,roaming and hustling. Then, What is the essence of graduation upon the approximately four million under population constituting of 195,000 paid employment positions.

The other 850,000 which comprises primarily of the youthful population that are self-employed. In appendage to that with close reference to the Liberia’s labour force survey only 1.1 million Liberians of the nearly 4.0 million populations are counted as employed in Liberia.

These graduates from diverse universities are strongly anticipated to be the next leaders of generation to come. But are these graduates prepared to captain the ship properly when they are still finding it challenging to have professional jobs. Education without job experience is meaningless to our national growth. The essence of graduation is to enhance graduates to give back to the society. To allow them practicalize what they have learnt over the past four to six years.

Employment only triumphs over jobless growth if national government and local nongovernmental organizations prioritize its own people as first preference.

Liberia is richly endowed with abundant resources viz gold, diamond,timber, oil, rubber, iron ore unlike the Gambia and ivory Coast that relies heavily on ground nuts and coffee respectively and yet there are job opportunities for the universities’ graduates. Multimillion dollars companies like Arcelor Metal, Western Cluster, Liberia Agriculture Company, Chevron, Chico, Firestone and least to mention our own government agencies should be giant employer to graduates so as to prompt economic development instead of just economic growth.

Economic growth which is the quantitative increase in the country output and input of goods and services can only yield economic development which is the qualitative and quantitative increase in goods and services if the nation prioritizes those graduates who have divergent expertise to bring to the table.

One of the most common types of unemployment confronting us as a recovering nation is under-employment. Under this type, Mental and financial unemployment is very ordinary before our sight. Mental under-employment is when there is a mismatch between the work a person is doing and what he studied. Financial –underemployment occurs when the worker is not getting equal pay from the
work he is doing.

Looking at such unfolding situation that we are engulfed with as a common denominator must not be taken lightly if economic development is our goal. Liberia present Gross domestic product is two billion and gross domestic per capital is us$513 thus making us amongst the first five poorest countries in the world.

This speaks volume that to perk up our collapsed economy there should be creation of jobs for graduates. Unfortunately, former students of these universities are cacophonously dubbed as marketers, push-push boys ,hawker, hustlers ,petit traders ,hustlers etc, Such traits have made it difficult to easily distinguish a man of BSc to that of a non BSc man.

How long must the graduates wait to accelerate their vehicles towards the building process of Liberia? Graduates with certain grade point average must be engrossed by the government upon graduation. Sponsoring them to pursue master’s degrees in key areas as Medicine, Engineering, Mining ,Mathematics Econometrics,cardiology,Pathology,information technology, Sources of employment not necessarily have to be government.

The effects of Unemployment upon Universities’ Graduates As there goes the aphorism “idle minds is the devil Workshop “and as a result, mass `exodus of graduates without jobs are likely to involve in heinous crimes as currency trafficking, drug addiction, prostitution and so forth. Besides that ,graduates experiencing jobless growth are potential tools for political chaos as well as ramble rabble-rousers and threat to peace .

These graduates without jobs are bad influence to the school going children owing to the fact that they are likely to sustain a venomous debate that education in Liberia is not important all because of being unemployed .More besides ,as these graduates continue to sit supinely for so many years in the absence of employment, the value of their degrees will be diminishing as they are ageing too. Degrees holder in our country without employment delays the development of the nation. It leads to vast spending of Millions of dollars by national government to hire and import foreign bureaucrats.

Insofar as these are some key effects on graduates lacking access to employment opportunities, I harbor no doubt that recommendations of these can assist us as an under-developed nation to tackle the problems of graduates ‘employment.

• Investment in Private and Public Sectors-increase in government and private expenditures creates jobs
• Privatization—as an economic method is an approach to shift government ownership of  public corporations, industries, companies, etc to private enterprises, thereby inviting individuals to have broad base participation
• Recruitment of Graduates by Multimillion Dollars Companies in Liberia Must Be Mandated by Government

Graduates who had excelled during their college sojourn must be employed immediately upon their graduation from university. Such obligatory recruitment by companies like Metal Steel, Western Cluster can help to reduce unemployment in the corridor. Before graduates can be Recruited by those companies as a mandate by national government, internships should be provided to them a year prior to graduation to give them an experience about the jobs.

4. Competitive Bidding of Local and International scholarships. While it is true that all college’s graduates cannot be the of the same status despite of the same degree as commonality amongst them, multitude of those graduates are decidedly desirous of wanting to study abroad must be afforded the opportunity publicly to apply for those scholarships through a competitive bidding process.

Those successful candidates must be awarded the scholarship to go out for study. With such an advantage enabling those recipients to return back with brand new baggage of ideas and innovation to create jobs for their other colleagues. Let us remember the dictum that says” With education comes innovation”

Finally, the nonstop discourse of unemployment that graduates are plagued with can be solved amicably if these recommendations are taken seriously.

While it is true that by 2030 Liberia is anticipated to be a Middle Income state, the provision of Job opportunities can facilitate them to be staunch economic drivers of our recovering economy that is heavily dependent on the extractive industry principally as iron ore leads all other exports at fifty five percent. And finally, I write.

Mohammed Salue Sy, Contributing Writer
Mohammedsy952@gmail.com /  0770339302/0880583208