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

14.9 In order to briefly acquaint this august body with the state of the educational sector in Liberia, we wish
to reflect the priority concerns of the sector in Africa, which includes access, quality and relevance, and capacitybuilding.
Regarding access, there is a clamour for education in Liberia's post-war era that is at once exciting and
frightening. It is exciting because the people of Liberia have unflinching faith and more interest in education than
ever before. It is frightening because there is a tremendous shortfall in the delivery of educational services due to
the devastation of the sector and the current lack of requisite resources.
14.10 Increased access at the primary and secondary levels over the post-war period 1997 to 1999 has been
dramatic. The unprecedented increase in enrolment from 1998 to 1999 can be partly attributed to an education
awareness campaign that was funded by UNESCO. This campaign laid emphasis on sending the girl child to
school. The formation of the Liberia chapter of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), with its
awareness-raising advocacy, has also assisted this process. Dramatic progress was also made at the secondary
level, where enrolment increased by 229% from a total of 28,568 to 65,578 from 1998 to 1999. This escalation,
we believe, was more largely triggered by the Government of Liberia's back to school initiative, dubbed the
"Assisted Enrolment Programme" (AEO), which substantially reduced tuition and fees in public schools, paid the
fees of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) for all students sitting these exams in ninth and twelfth
grades and added a hardship allowance to teachers' pay, among others.
14.11 Other programmes have been designed to increase access, targeting Education for All. The national
mass literacy programme was launched by the Government of Liberia on 8 September 1999, with the aim of
halving the illiteracy rate in the country by the end of 2000. The Accelerated Learning Programme is a
UNICEF/Ministry of Education programme modelled on the Complementary Opportunity for Primary Education
programme (COPE) in Uganda that caters to children from 8 to 14 years who have been affected by the war and
have not entered school or have dropped out. It is currently being implemented. This programme covers the
primary school curriculum from 6 years to 13. The programme is just going nationwide after completing its pilot
phase. There has been positive reception of the programme in trial schools and good performance of its students
warranting its nationwide usage. This programme will cater to former child soldiers and other disadvantaged
youth.
14.12 A number of quick impact skill-building programmes have also been designed for these youth. The
Director-General of UNESCO has also supported the Victoria A. Tolbert Girls in Distress Facility for girls who
find themselves marginalized in one way or the other. This facility offers support to grass-roots organizations
which are trying to assist these wayward and street girls. As girls are the most vulnerable group in Liberia after
the war, owing to their already disadvantaged status exacerbated by the war, resulting in street life and the
waywardness of many girls - a situation not helped by foreign troops as peacekeepers - we hope that UNESCO
will continue to support this programme.
14.13 The problems of access in Liberia have been compounded by the war. Most facilities are not yet
completely renovated and many are not up to standard. The high demand for education has given space for
persons to step into a vacuum who may be providing an alternative to quality education rather than quality
education itself. That is also another reason why Liberia requires urgent assistance in the renovation of secondary
vocational-technical and post-secondary institutions, which are now in dire straits.
14.14 There is a decided erosion in quality and standards because many of the proper mechanisms for assuring
quality and the provision of standards have broken down. Committees for certification, accreditation and permits
to operate schools in the country have had to be revisited. The Commission on Higher Education, the main body
for setting guidelines and for regulating higher education, had to be established and made functional. Happily, the
West African Examinations Council Liberia Office, an external examining body, though adversely affected by
the war, managed to maintain itself during the period of the civil conflict and continues to evaluate secondary
students.
14.15 In post-war Liberia, several areas of emphasis stand out in terms of relevance. These are the requirement
for peace/civic education and the need to ensure that the nation's youth have some marketable skills through
vocational-technical education. The menace of AIDS and other STDs, coupled with a youthful population and a
high population growth rate, call for population and family life education in our schools. The computer age
beckons our educational sector to be responsive to its saturation of our life in today's global village.
14.16 With the almost total deterioration of capacity in the education sector occasioned by the war and the
paucity of opportunities to meet the great demands to restore damaged educational structures and re-equip them,
to provide the necessary mobility for educational workers, supplies, to revamp programmes as well as to revive
human and professional capacities, one could posit that the greatest difficulties among access, quality and
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