UNESCO. General Conference; 30th; Records ... - unesdoc - Unesco

14.1. Ms KANDAKAI (Liberia):
Madam President of the General Conference, Director-General of UNESCO, Chairperson of the
Executive Board, fellow delegates, ladies and gentlemen, the 30th session of the General Conference of
UNESCO will probably be recorded in time as one the most captivating and significant because it comes at the
advent of a new era, a new millennium that promises spectacular advances in science and technology far beyond
the space, satellite and information age that already exists in our world today. Because the leadership of
UNESCO will change hands at this juncture, it is befitting to salute the intellectual giant, poet and man of
compassion and peace, Mr Federico Mayor, who has brought UNESCO to towering heights and in full sight of its
mandate. This too will make this General Conference go down as unprecedented, as Mayor takes his exit. Liberia
salutes him - and all who have worked with him to make UNESCO the great Organization it has become.
14.2 But just as incredible progress has been made in improving the lot of men and women, especially
through UNESCO's fields of competence, there remains a sizeable portion of the world's six billion who dwell in
abject poverty and squalor. Though tremendous advances have been made by the world in pursuing equality of
the sexes, it is not nearly enough because the larger portion of the world's poor and illiterate are women. Your
election, Madam President, becomes significant because of this reality. Concomitantly, in the social arena,
debilitating wars and conflicts, most of them self-inflicted, across the world and especially on the African
continent, have cast shadows of gloom and doom across the bright picture of man's advancement in civilization.
14.3 Liberia was once a country of relative and envious peace, stability and progress until it engulfed itself in
a bloody and fratricidal war which began in 1989. The conflagration was not extinguished until the elections of
19 July 1997. Liberia has done an "about face" and vowed "to study war no more" with the burning of arms and
ammunition under the sponsorship of the United Nations and ECOWAS, symbolically consummated on 26 July
1999. Liberia thus embraces in this spirit the proclamation of the year 2000 as the International Year for the
Culture of Peace and will do all in its power to support it.
14.4 On assuming office on 2 August 1997, the Government of Liberia, led by Charles Ghankay Taylor,
President of Liberia, the situation at hand in Liberia could best be described as featuring remnants of factional
enclaves, with little or no governance, whether political or educational: in other words, very much a free-for-all
situation. At this point in time Liberia's future looked dim to many of its citizens, but a window of hope sent a
beam of light even to bystanders and the world when peace became a reality. Quite a lot has been done to
consolidate this peace and today Liberia can boast of a relatively stable environment and one of the freest presses
in the region.
14.5 For the education sector and the Education Ministry, this situation was overwhelming. Most educational
facilities lay in ruins - schools and educational institutions were largely destroyed and looted leaving them in
most cases shells of their former selves. Teachers, educational administrators and officers were displaced
internally or externally, facilities and equipment were damaged and school programmes were severely hampered
or rendered non-existent; including the database of the sector. The same fate was suffered by information and
cultural institutions and centres.
14.6 UNESCO will long be remembered in Liberian education, because it was UNESCO that came in with a
project "Rehabilitation Support to the Education Sector", a project that rescued the sector from its imminent
demise, most especially public sector education. Confounding the work of the Ministry of Education, the project
just mentioned and other stakeholders, was the fact that although there were a number of actors in the educational
environment, their participation was largely uncoordinated. Assistance was restricted internally because of the
lack of economic recovery and externally, limited to the United Nations system and international NGOs whose
assistance has been mostly humanitarian. The situation remains very much the same today.
14.7 The above scenario was severely aggravated by the pre-war problems which beset the educational
sector, such as over-centralization of the system, poor management (high wastage/attrition), non-availability of
instructional materials, poorly qualified and poorly paid teachers, and an academically biased educational
agenda. These problems were being addressed through the concerted but gradual efforts of the educational sector.
14.8 Since assuming office, the present Government of Liberia has tackled education with a new zeal,
proclaiming it a priority and key pillar of its platform. This prioritization is buttressed by extensive popular
demand and a quest for education that far exceeds the capability of the Government to provide it at this critical
time. Though much has been done to restore the system through the rehabilitation of many educational
institutions, quite a number of students do not have seats, thousands of teachers need to be trained, textbooks and
laboratory equipment for the secondary level are lacking and vocational technical institutions are still unattended
to.
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