Liberia: Educators meet in Maryland County

In a protest by students at William VS Tabman University in Harper, Maryland, Deputy Minister of Education Felesia Do Soma ended a day’s meeting with local educators in the county.

Held last week in Pleebo, Maryland County Constituency # 2, the conference brought together principals of both private and public schools, district educators, and county educators.

The county principal highlighted the progress and challenges experienced in the last few years.

Rev. Alfred TG Boren, Principal of OS Collins Baptist High School, said the school structure has been improved to a two-story building with 12 classes and offices.

He said school administration plans to tile the floor to make the learning environment useful for students. Bohren added that a modern toilet was built on campus to replace the pit latrine that students had previously used.

Sico William, the principal of the county’s second oldest public high school, emphasized the lack of salaries for volunteer teachers, required textbooks and educational staff.

The principal of Pleebo High School said during this period volunteer teachers at the school peacefully protested and demanded that their names be included in government salaries, drawing the attention of county educators.

But until now, volunteer teachers still teach, even though their names aren’t on the payroll.

At the same time, other principals have revealed that they have not benefited from the government’s US $ 1 million stimulus package for teachers in private schools across the country.

They narrated despite President George Mane Ware announcing a US $ 1 million package for private school teachers, but they haven’t benefited yet.

The newly appointed district education officer, Scere Doe, outlined the challenges facing his office.

DEO Doe explained that he oversees the largest educational institution (Pleebo) in the county, which has a total of 46 secondary schools.

He said mobility and stationery are major challenges in running his office smoothly, despite the number of schools under surveillance.

Doe said he might ride a commercial bicycle to do school inspections and appealed to the government through Deputy Minister of Education Felecia Somah to address some of the urgent needs.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister Soma praised the principals, district and county education officers of various schools for the progress made over the years.

She urged the principals of both private and public schools to continue to do good work to enhance the learning environment for future generations.

She soon needed a teacher’s salary situation, an aggressive teacher’s name removal from government salary, a lack of suitable textbooks for 12th grade students planning to write WASSCE, and a need for more qualified teachers. He said it would be dealt with by the government.

The ministry regrets the challenges it faces in schools, but said the issue of public school teachers, who teach a few schools at the same time, should be abolished.

She warned that if government-paid public school teachers were found to leave the school assigned to teach private schools, they would have to answer the question.