Monrovia — In a recent interview with AllAfrica's Boakai Fofana, Liberia's education minister, Joseph Korto, discussed the successes and challenges of rebuilding the country's educational system after a devastating civil war.
What's your overall view of the educational sector in Liberia?
Let me firstly say that on the whole, I am not totally pleased with the current state of the educational system. In the past, prior to the war, even though we are a developing nation, we had an educational system that… we were very proud of in many respects, in terms of the quality of instruction, management, etc. But we find ourselves in a situation today where we are recovering from a devastating civil war that brought [the system] to a halt or total collapse.
But I must say that since the return of relative peace, our donor partners and government have done much in ensuring that we can regain the strength of our system. So we are very thankful to those partners assisting us in expanding infrastructure so we can enroll many more of our students [and] in training teachers, so that we will be able to improve the quality of education.
However, as it stands right now, we must say that overall we do not have a sufficient number of classrooms to accommodate all school-age children. And the quality of instruction in most, if not all of our schools is not the best that we desire for our future generation of leaders. In management, there are still problems of capacity. We need to build more capacity so that we can efficiently and effectively manage the school system.
Yet today we have a government that has the political will and the commitment, and we have the goodwill of the international community, particularly our development partners. Much is being done. If we continue at this pace, I can tell you that this system will be brought back to its pre-war state and in fact move forward with development. What we hope is to be able to sustain our hard-earned peace, because it is only when we have peace that we can focus on sustainable development and progress.
How does education fit into the government's strategy for poverty reduction?
If you look through the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS), there's a whole section on education. No country can effectively address the issue of poverty in isolation from improving opportunities for education. We have a situation currently, for example, where the health ministry complains about high shortages of health professionals. You cannot reduce poverty if the people are not in good health. Who trains those health professionals? You have to have educators.
One of the strategies reducing poverty is economic revitalization, which is one of the pillars under the PRS. But how do you revitalize the economy? [We] are going to be reactivating economic activities... reopening the mines, for example, reopening the rubber plantations and many other economic activities that were active before the war.
We cannot successfully do these things unless we develop the manpower, and it's the educational sector that does that. So for immediate as well as long-term sustainable reduction of poverty, education has to be a centerpiece. Only when people have the knowledge to sustain their own livelihoods, to be able to get gainful employment, can you successfully reduce poverty. So education is an essential pillar under the PRS.
One of the criticisms some people have of the government is the fact that it is heavily concentrated in Monrovia. How are you making sure that you reach out to people in the rural areas, say for example someone in Harper in the southeast?
I can tell you that that criticism, even prior to the war, does not apply to the educational sector. If you go out into the hinterland, there are schools all over the place. I must agree that there are some hard-to-reach areas that do not yet have access to education facilities. But that is something that is under consideration. We are focusing on providing access to facilities irrespective of where our children live.
You may be aware that this government upon coming to power took a bold step in abolishing any type of fees in our public primary school system. That decision was taken primarily to make sure that cost was not an impediment to any child entering primary school. And that policy is implemented on a nationwide basis. Every time the government gives school grants, [they] are given to every public primary school throughout the length and breadth of this country. So the focus is not based on Monrovia alone.
How has that affected enrollment?
Let me say that is one of the successful policies or programs of government. Upon the inception of free and compulsory primary education, in the very first year the country experienced an impressive 40 percent increase in enrollment. That has continued and it is now challenging us.
If you visit many of our primary schools – and this is in each and every county – the classrooms are filled, the available schools are filled, to the extent we are turning a blind eye to the enforcement of some of our guidelines that say that we should have 45 students in a classroom. Some of our classrooms now have 60, others 70 - others are even higher than that.
During registration, you have parents calling the ministry and complaining that some principals are refusing to enroll their kids. And the principals are calling to say that they just don't have any space to enroll additional students.
So the policy is having the desired impact of opening the doors of primary education to all of our children, irrespective of who can and cannot afford it. The challenge that we have is to create additional space to accommodate additional students.
How does the quality of education compare in urban and rural areas?
In areas such as, for example, Monrovia, that is concentrated with private institutions, we must admit that some of those institutions have a slightly better quality program than some of our public institutions...
Why is that?
The students who attend private institutions are those who parents can afford it. If their parents can afford it, they might have a relatively better socio-economic background. Those who go to private schools do it by choice and the schools have the opportunity to test the students and accept those that they want…
The public schools have no choice… If you are in the village and you have space for 200 students and you actually have 300, the public school system cannot say, well, we will only take only 200 and that's it. If it is a private school, they can make that decision and stand by it.
So when you have a classroom of 45 students to a teacher in a private school and in the public school you have a ratio 60 or 75 to a teacher, it affects the quality. The demands on the public system are not the same as the demands that are on the private system.
Talking about capacity, one of the areas of concern is infrastructure. How are you making sure that schools are rehabilitated?
Much has been achieved. A significant number of the damaged schools and infrastructure have been renovated and made operational thanks to our donor partners – the United Nations system for example had a Quick Impact Project initiative. [There are] others like the UN Children's Fund, USAID and many others…
The World Bank have been very supportive in trying to rehabilitate our infrastructure. The Kakata Rural Teacher Training Institute, the Zorzor Rural Teacher Training Institute and Webo are our teacher training schools. They were in a state of disarray. But USAID assisted us to the tune of $4 million. Those institutions have been renovated and made operational.
So teacher training programs have not been functional until now?
Well, during the heat of the war, the teacher training program was not functional. After the return of relative peace, teacher training programs were initiated but on a pilot, short-term, quick-impact basis. Now that we are focused on sustainable development, transitioning from our quick impact projects, we and our partners have agreed that we phase out all of the short-term programs and begin sustainable long-term programs.
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How is the enrollment of girls?
We just got through the school census, which is… very professional… I have not fully read it but generally there's a disparity between the enrollment of boys and girls, favoring the boys. There are a number of interventions taking place in collaboration with the government and our donor partners that are addressing and trying to close the gap. We are being successful, to the extent that at the primary level the gap has now narrowed considerably [and]… there are some schools, from what we saw in the current school census, where you have a little more girls than boys.
As you move to the higher level, at the secondary level for instance, you find the gap widens. Some of the reasons are that as young girls move up the ladder, they start to get pregnant and drop out of school. You have been hearing a lot about students getting pregnant at ages 14, 15, 16 etc.
We also… do not have secondary school facilities in the hard-to-reach rural areas. Some of the students who reach that level must relocate to where there are concentrations of senior high schools. If you look into the counties, for example in Margibi, Bong, Nimba, the high schools are concentrated in the administrative capitals of these counties…
There are many rural parents who will agree for their boys to relocate rather than their girls. Many parents will refuse to allow their girls to go away from the village, because girls will have much harder time coping with life in communities where they will relocate. These and other reasons keep the disparity between boys and girls at the secondary level much wider than it is at the primary level.
