Monrovia – Liberia’s Education Minister Dr. Jarso Jallah has reported the poor enrollment of students at various public schools in seven of the 15 counties in Liberia.
By Obediah Johnson, [email protected]
Quoting preliminary reports from County Educational Officers (CEOs), Minister Jallah reported that over 1.3 million students are enrolled at schools across Liberia.
She noted that out of the total number, 434,475 are attending public schools, 518,865 in private schools, while 33,065 are attending community schools and 347,305 others in faith-based schools.
She made the disclosure when she was summoned by the Plenary of the Liberian Senate to provide a budget performance report on the purchase and distribution of school supplies, disbursements to schools under the ministry’s authority, status of voluntary teachers, and public and private schools enrollment and procurement program recently.
She added that out of the total number of students enrolled, about 51.3% include males, while 48.7% are males.
She said though the enrollment of females is welcoming, more needs to be done to increase their enrollment in schools across the country.
She named Bomi, Gbarpolu, Grand Bassa, Grand Gedeh, River Gee, Rivercess and Sinoe as counties with low enrollment of students.
Minister Jallah, however, disclosed that as part of efforts to address the situation, the ministry has launched an enrollment drive in these counties.
“We have launched the enrollment drive currently in the counties, distributing bags and books directly to the students to ensure that we keep the communities informed to keep kids in school.”
She pointed out that prior to her ascendancy, the total number of volunteer teachers and their qualifications or credentials were unknown.
As a result of this, she added that her administration commenced an exercise to profile volunteer teachers across the country in a bid to include them on the payroll of the government.
In a digital format, she reported that 6,192 volunteer teachers have been profiled across the country, with 80% constituting males, and remaining constituting females.
She named Bong, Lofa, Montserrado and Nimba as counties with the highest number of volunteer teachers.
Minister Jallah said a cross examination exercise was also carried out with these volunteer teachers.
According to her, of the volunteer teachers in the educational system in Liberia, 3,213 only have high school credentials and “C” certificates respectively.
She maintained that the lowest number of 31 in the volunteer teachers poll of the ministry only have master level credentials, while 1,521 of them had Associate and Bachelor degrees without teaching credentials.
Minister Jallah disclosed that as part of efforts to migrate volunteer teachers to the payroll of the government, the ministry took a decision to prioritize those with “C” certificates and credentials.
“In that scheme, we were able to look at the Associate degrees and the volunteer teachers count was 560 of them who had academic and teaching credential.”
She said some of these teachers were placed on payroll to receive a monthly salary of US$185 in keeping with the Civil Service Agency (CSA) standards.
She emphasized that most of the volunteer teachers captured are from some primary schools across the country.
Unqualified volunteer teachers
“It will also interest you to note that these “C” certificate instructors are teaching higher grades up to 9th grade, which they are not certified to teach at. That’s the problem that we are working to solve.”
Minister Jallah said a request for a teaching training program for either a “B” or “C” certificate is about US$25 per day at various teaching training programs.
According to her, the amount of US$11.5million is needed to train the 1,521 volunteer teachers to receive “C” certificates.
Purchasing and distribution
According to her, about 50% of the amount accrued in the National Budget for Fiscal Year 2024 for the purchasing and distribution of school supplies has already been allocated and 85% of the 15 counties in Liberia has procured and distributed to schools.
Minister Jallah claimed that each county was given school supplies worth US$65,000, but was allotted about US$32, 831.69, excluding Sinoe County.
She reported that procurements for the remaining schools in 15% of the counties are being processed.
She added that documented evidence has also been submitted to the ministry by these counties and their respective requests are being accelerated for their procurement processes for the second semester to be completed in a timely manner.
Minister Jallah said the amount of US$7.9million was allocated for compensation of personnel, over US$2.5 for goods and services, US$751,587
as grants, and subsidies amounting to US$491,868.
She disclosed that out of the 32 institutions receiving subsidies from the government, through the ministry, 11 of them are being processed for disbursements, adding that, “we have been able to disburse US$376,381.35.”
