The Editor,
It doesn’t take a genius to understand why our government schools need radical transformation. Just look at the WAEC exams test scores. (Re” Liberia Needs A Radical Education Transformation”, Frontpageafrica)
In the recent WAEC exams, 50 percent of the students failed, most of them from government schools. Another 17 percent is being investigated for cheating.
Most government school students fail because of the substandard education they receive from our 2-by-4 government school teachers (MCSS teachers)!
These same (MCSS) teachers take bribes and have sex with students’ in exchange good grades! Because of that kind of academic fraud (grade inflation), a typical government school 12th grader reads, writes, and computes at a 8th grade level.
So how do you expect these same students to pass a HIGH school assessment test (WAEC)? Hey, your government schools have failed our students.
To make matters worse, most of our government school students are worthless citizens! Most of the goons you see on our streets, throwing stones at Police, begging for money, blocking traffic, burning tires, stopping productive citizens from going to work, etc… are either political science major at LU, or unemployed government schools graduates!
And yet you keep spending more and more money, year in, and year out, on government education. Today, 1/6 (US$80 million) of our national budget is allocated to the Ministry of Education to “educate” these goons!. How stupid is that?
Seriously, would you keep giving somebody your our hard earned money if they keep producing defective products like these goons in government schools?? I wouldn’t. Would you?
Look. The only people who benefit from your tax dollars are the central planners- the so called “book people” (education experts) and “consultants” at the Ministry of Education.
They spend your money hiring incompetent government school teachers. They spend your money paying themselves to be on Facebook and cell phones all day! They spend your money attending useless “educational” conferences in London, Paris, and New York.
But here the kicker: They spend your tax dollars on government scholarships for their children! Yes, that’s your tax dollars at work! (by the way, most of their children attend PRIVATE or PAROCHIAL schools in Liberia. Did you know that?)
As you can see, the biggest beneficiaries of your tax dollars are these racketeers, oops, I mean, education experts! They have NO interest in educating your child, especially those trapped in our rotten government schools. But you keep giving them more and more money and expecting a different result. Isn’t that insane?
But when will you stop this insanity (doing the same thing over and, over, and over, and expecting something different)?
The most radical way to transform government education is to abolish the Ministry of Education altogether and give that money (school voucher or opportunity scholarship) to parents to allow them to send their children to a private or parochial school of their choice!
It can be done in two steps:
Step 1 – Abolish the US$80 million Ministry of Education.
Step 2 – Pass a law stating that “The state shall protect freedom of educational choice of a pupil and a parent…The state shall finance education of a pupil from the central budget by a voucher and every parent has a right to get a voucher for financing the education of a child who reaches school age.” That’s it.
Martin Scott, Concerned Parent
Atlanta, Georgia