Dr. Freeman has complained that modern machines have been invented to replace human efforts, but BWI still uses human efforts to train students.
By Ramsey N Singbeh, Jr in Margibi
Monrovia, December 11, 2024: The Principal of Booker T. Washington Institute (BWI), Dr. Nancy T. Freeman, has informed President Joseph Nyuma Boakai that the institution is still challenged with major issues.
Dr. Freeman informed President Boakai at the 2024 National Agriculture Fair in Margibi County recently on the main campus of BWI.
She listed inadequate budgetary appropriation for the smooth running of the institution and the lack of mobility to transport goods and services from vendors to BWI.
She lamented the challenge of staff and students moving when senior students are going for job training.
In addition, the principal said seven of the trade shops at the school need serious intervention.
She stated that the agriculture department, which is the flagship of BWI, faces a lack of essential tools and equipment.
According to her, power tillers, tractors, pickups, motorbikes, and other agriculture machinery needed to support the training program effectively are not available.
The shortage of these pieces of equipment, she added, is greatly causing hindrance to the practical training.
She continued that it limits the hands-on experience the students need to succeed in agriculture.
Dr. Freeman also told the president that they are still teaching with cutlasses and hoes in the 21st century at the BWI Agricultural and Industrial and Technical High School.
She lamented that modern machines have been invented to replace human efforts, but BWI still uses human efforts to train students.
She noted that this makes the training of students slow, and they are not being exposed to modern technology.
Dr. Freeman explained that they are aware that the teaching of agriculture is about 60 to 65% practical.
However, she noted that the instructional areas are not spacious and equipped enough to enhance the smooth learning of their students.
Further, the principal explained that the agriculture department at the institution needs to be expanded to accommodate the growing population of students.
She mentioned that two classrooms and a soil laboratory are not equipped.
Against this background, the BWI Principal said her administration had written the Agriculture Minister, Dr. J. Alexander Nuetah, appealing to his office to help the institution with the above-mentioned agriculture tools that will enhance the learning condition of the students.
She, at the same time, appealed to President Boakai to kindly assist the institution.
Meanwhile, Dr. Freeman has recognized the efforts of international partners towards the institution.
She averred that most of the trade shops at BWI would have been extinct if their partners had not come to assist the institution.
She listed the partners as the United States of America through its implementing agencies, the European Union through the United Nations International Development Organization (UNIDO), the Youth Rising, the Sweden Government through its Embassy near Monrovia, and the French International Organization (IECD).
Dr. Freeman reported that the European Union has reconditioned and refurbished four major trade shops with state-of-the-art equipment.
According to her, the four trade shops are automotive, carpentry, electrical, and machinery.
She continued that the European Union, through UNIDO, reconditioned and refurbished the TVET building, a space now used to teach trainers of trainers from TVET schools around the country.
Recently, Dr. Freeman explained, the IECD provided a modern mixer for block making along with its accessories to the Masonry Section of the General Building Trade Department.
She then revealed that there are plans underway for IECD to expand the Domestic Science Department.
