By Tokpa Tarnue- tarnue82@gmail.com
Voinjama, Liberia- Citizens of Lofa County in northwestern Liberia Citizens of Lofa County are continuing their advocacy campaign calling for the budgetary allotment of the Education Ministry to be increased to 20 percent by 2020.
The citizens are also seeking to ensure the full implementation of the Liberia Education Reform Act of 2011.
Presenting a petition statement to the Liberian government through the Lofa County Legislative Caucus earlier this week (Thursday June 27), the Lofa citizens outlined several key issues as major challenges facing the education sector of the County and Country at large.
They outlined the limited trained and qualified teachers in various classrooms, 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.
Volunteer teachers, most of whom are not trained and qualified are the available teachers in the classrooms, the petition noted.
The Lofa 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 has been urged to allocate at least 20% of the National budget 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 the Lofa County Caucus, Chairman Senator Stave H. Zargo, Mr. John Soreba thanked the citizens and student community for their brilliant and bore step taken to peacefully petition the government through their lawmakers.
“Gone are the days when people took to the streets violently to seek redress and your action today has proven that” Mr. Soreba told the petitioners.
He said the need for more and adequate support for education as a country cannot be over emphasized and promised that the petition will be submitted to the County Caucus through its chairperson.
“There is a need for budget increment for a conducive environment for all students.” Mr Soreba indicated.
The petitioning ceremony, which took place simultaneously in three of the County’s big cities–Voinjama, Kolahun and Foya–brought together a cross- section of citizens numbering in their thousands from the three districts.
According to the Executive Director of the Village Development Fund (VDF), the advocacy campaign 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) with support from the United Stated Agency for International Development (USAID).
However, Mr. Maxwell Saah Tosah President of the National Teacher Association Lofa Chapter stressed on the welfare of the teachers, noting the need to increase salary in the teaching field.
He said it is the teacher that build and prepare the future generation, but yet many are paid L$ 7,500 while ministers, directors are receiving over US$1,500.
The appearance of the teacher in the class also has effect on the children learning ability, Mr. Tosah explained.
“It’s good to have a good learning environment, and nice building, but they are nothing when the teachers are not trained and equip to motivate the students for education.”
He pressed teachers are nation builders that prepare the future, noting without teacher it become difficult for any nation to succeed.
The More-4-Education is a component of the United States Agency for International Development or USAID, Liberia Voice Accountability Initiative or LAVI that is being implemented by ten civil society organizations, which include the Village Dev elopement Fund (VDF), Youth Movement for Collective Action, National Teacher Association of Liberia, Youth Coalition for Education in Liberia, National PTA Network of Liberia, Helping Our People Excel, Inclusive Development Initiative and Coalition for Transparency and Accountability in Education.