By William Selmah wselmah@gmail.com
A Liberian civil society actor based in the U.S. has made a passionate plea to the George Weah administration to put in place mechanisms to attract qualified teachers to secondary and tertiary institutions in rural parts of the country.
Mr. Amish Amara, Executive Director of Democracy Frontline International (DFI) who currently resides in Fargo, North Dakota, said one way to do this is to provide free, standard housing units to instructors and professors willing to take up assignments in rural settings.
In a dispatch from the United States dated May 27, Mr. Amara also suggested that basic social services being enjoyed in urban areas such as electricity and water be extended to rural communities.
“It is disheartening to hear that some high schools for example, have a single teacher responsible to teach a particular subject from the 7th to the 12th grade”, Mr. Amara noted.
He said while it is true that Liberia is still recovering from the effects of civil war, this is unimaginable because the country has enjoyed almost 15 years of peace following the conflict.
Amara thanked the Ministry for the recent summit it held in Kakata, aimed at harnessing a collective effort to provide quality education for every Liberian child, which brought together over 300 education specialists, policy makers, parents, business and community leaders, among others. But he said such a great goal can only be achieved when the quality of learning programs in rural settlements is brought on par with those especially in urban Monrovia.
He also used the occasion to call on President Weah to sustain the village integration project launched in Foya Lofa County, with initial funding from the Chinese Embassy few years ago.
“This program which began merging smaller villages to form big towns is a perfect model that attracts basic social services and not only teachers, but other professionals including nurses and doctors as well, who often refuse to take up assignments in remote and sparsely populated communities”, the DFI boss explained.