-Stage peaceful demonstration in Voinjama
By Tokpa Tarnue- tarnue82@gmail.com
Voinjama-Citizens of Lofa County in northwestern Liberia have petitioned the government through educational stakeholders and their county Legislative Caucus to increase the education budget of the country by 20% and to also ensure a full implementation of the 2011 education reforms.
The ceremony which took place simultaneously in three of the County’s big cities–Voinjama, Kolahun and Foya–brought together thousands of cross section of within the three districts.
Speaking in Voinjama, the Executive Director of the Village Development Fund (VDF) the initiative is part of a one year education program title “Improving Education through Democracy More for Education Campaign in Liberia being implemented in the county by the Village Development Fund. This is a non-for-profit organization based in Lofa with funding from the Liberia Accountability and Voice Initiative (LAVI).
The citizens in the petition outlined several key issues as major challenges facing the education sector of Lofa County.
They outlined the limited trained and qualified teachers in various classrooms in the County, low budgetary support to the Lofa County School system, the lack of support to the County School Board and the poor implementation of the Liberia Education Reform Act of 2011 as major challenges the Lofa County school sector is currently facing.
They also maintained that there are many schools operating in the County without the visit and supervision of Education Officers that are responsible to uphold standard, quality and teaching and learning relevance in the classrooms, noting that volunteer teachers, most of whom are not trained and qualified are the available teachers in the classrooms.
The Liberian citizens in their petition also indicated that low budgetary allocation and non-functional County School Board and as a result of low budgetary allocation are several challenges that must be addressed to ensure that people get access to quality and equal Education for all in Lofa County.
The petitioners want the Lofa County Authorities lobby and engage with members of the National Legislature of the Republic of Liberia through the Lofa County Legislative Caucus to allocate at least 20% of the National budge for Education by 2020 and to ensure the implementation of the Education Reform Act of 2011 through proper and coordination by 2020.
Receiving the petition statement on behalf of Lofa County Superintendent Honorable William Tamba Kamba, Lofa County Inspector Mr. Balawala Koiblee and the CEO Mr. James T. Zuannah thanked the citizens and student community for their brilliant and bore step taken to peacefully petition the government through their local Authorities.
Mr. Koiblee promised that the document would be submitted to the Honorable Superintendent upon arrival to the County.