Kakata — Youth Movement for Collective Action (UMOVEMENT) has launched the USAID-Civil Society Activity (CSA) Education Thematic Window with an emphasis on monitoring and research/investigation into public school registration fees and remittance in Margibi and Montserrado Counties.
Speaking during the launch of the project over the weekend in Kakata, Margibi County, Siemon L. Wee UMOVEMENT/CSA project assistant said her organization will use the grant provided by USAID to undertake advocacy activities for the monitoring and research/investigation into public school registration fees and remittance using Liberia's national education policies and laws.
According to her, the project is aimed at investigating, monitoring, and reporting the actual distribution of the collected registration fees and remittance between the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the schools and how these public schools use their allocations.
Ms. Wee explained that UMOVEMENT will plan and undertake advocacy programs that are designed to create public awareness and generate support among key stakeholders and partners in 18 public schools in Lower Montserrado and Margibi Counties.
She postulated that the project implementation strategy includes advocacy, monitoring, media activities, gender equality and social inclusion (GESI), and capacity building.
The UMOVEMENT/CSA project assistant revealed that there will be a conduct of qualitative research with an interpretation paradigm to show a deeper understanding of the perceptions on how the Ministry of Education and administrators are managing school fees.
"We will initiate face-to-face interviews with principals as a main data-gathering tool to determine the reality of how school fees are managed; and produce, distribute, and publicize a video documentary to highlight positive deviant cases around the payment of registration fees and remittance in public schools," she disclosed.
She narrated that UMOVEMENT will by key legislation engage and support educational stakeholders in strengthening and restructuring Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) and County School Boards to ensure accountability and transparency--and sexual exploitation is minimized in schools.
She, however, expressed optimism that at the climax of the one-year project, the Ministry of Education (MoE), educational stakeholders, and policymakers could be able to develop and publicize guidelines and procedures for the collection and remittance of registration fees in public schools.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
At the same time, Ms. Wee disclosed that findings from the research will be shared with relevant stakeholders and will be used as advocacy tools for the increment of the country's education budget.
For his part, Stephen H. Toe, Jr., Margibi County Education Officer, launching the USAID-Civil Society Activity (CSA) Education Thematic Window, extolled USAID-Liberia for providing grants to UMOVEMENT through DAI to implement such activities aimed to strengthen Liberians' ability to advocate for policy reforms, policy implementation, and service delivery improvements through multi-stakeholder coalitions that build feedback loops among the GOL, CSOs, and citizens around reform priorities.
The CEO offered the local MOE commitment and support to work with UMOVEMENT and partners for the full implementation of the project activities and call on District Education Officers, School administrators, and heads of PTAs to rally support for the goal of the project to be achieved.
Speaking earlier, Edwin M. Darjue (DEO Careysburg) urges school administrators to utilize the remittance received from the Ministry of Education until the advocacy for an increment in the Education budget can materialize.
The program was graced by the District Education Officers from Margbi (Marshall and Farmington) and Montserrado (Careysburg), the 18 school representatives that are part of the research, education stakeholders, and media institutions.
