-“A decade without higher education”-says study
By our Reporter
Findings from a recent study of thousands of Liberia’s commercial motorcyclists show that though it has proven to be vibrant income-generating sector and significantly contributed to security, “the sector has in some significant ways hampered the pursuit of higher education by Liberia’s youth population.”
The study was conducted recently by a local research group, Open Liberia to explore how over 40,000 commercial motorcyclists in Liberia have spent the last decade.
Titled: A Decade Without Higher Education, the report released in Monrovia on Tuesday says “the fast and untaxed revenues from this sector encourage actors not to pursue sustainable careers, whether through higher academic, technical or vocational education.”
The study of motorcyclists, locally referred to as “phem-phem riders”, was conducted in September and October of 2017 in 25 communities in Montserrado County.
Samuka Konneh, Executive Director of Open Liberia said the study sought to understand how an estimated 40,000 commercial motorcyclists have spent the last decade, especially in terms of education from 2007-2017.
He said the study interviewed 1,001 motor taxi drivers; and 868 or 86.2% of them have spent between one year to ten years in this sector.
But the study discovered that in that whole decade, “90% of the motorcyclists only have less than a high school education.”
“Only two motorcyclists our study found have graduated from a college or university, although 53 enrolled. The primary reason they cited was lack of money to cater to personal, family, and school obligations at the same time and from a single income source. Interestingly, only few respondents blamed their not being in school on lack of interest or lack of school in their communities. In fact, as per the data, all except 5 respondents, expressed interest in going back to school,” the report said.
According to the study, only 21 of the respondents enrolled at a technical or vocational school also within the last decade, something Open Liberia concludes has serious implications for future stability in Liberia.
“Holding the country’s stability as a measurement, any person who was in elementary school in 2003 would have been out of high school by the end of the decade in 2013. Similarly, those who were in junior high within the same timeframe, would have been in their 2nd or 3rd year in college while those at high school level would have all been out of college by now – if they have remained or continued in school. But the reality is that different based on the data our study has generated from speaking with actors in this sector,” the study notes.
Meanwhile, the authors of the report are proposing that “while commercial motorcycling remains a viable income generating sector, stakeholders in education and youth development should begin to develop technical, vocational or professional training programs specifically tailored and targeting actors in this sector.”
They are warning that because of the fact that the commercial motorcycle riding business is an activity that generates income to handle their immediate expenses, motorcyclists “ignore the long term effect of not being educated.”
“Commercial motorcycling is not a sustainable trade or career. The fact that 90% of the young people interviewed did not get enough income to enroll in a higher learning institution supports our conclusion that commercial motorcycling is not a sustainable activity,” the Open Liberia report further warned.
If the current trend continues, the report added that “in another decade from now, and as attractive as the sector remains, more and more young people will fail to attain higher education – thereby increasing the number of illiterate and school-dropouts in our country.”
Education must now be prioritized instead of money-making at an early stage in the lives of these motorcyclist, “If we must empower and include our young people in our country’s governance,” the Open Liberia report concludes.