MONROVIA — The education system of Liberia continues to receive backlashes for not only failing to rise to contemporary realities such as good learning environments, technology, as well as available and adequately well-trained manpower, but also its continuous alignment with a “flawed” foundation established in the 1800s.
Dr. Benjamin Wehye, President of LICOSESS College of Education recently returned home from Zambia with his PhD earned in Education after five years of what he termed as “intensive online research based and solution development study,” accompanied by in-person seminars.
Wehye, over the weekend weighed in on the education sector of his country with focus on its challenges and the lack of political will to stimulate change for not only progress but also long lasting and sustainable ceaseless quality manpower development for nation building.
He addressed at his newly built edifice for his university college about two hundred people who showed up to welcome and thank him on his success in completing studies and acquiring a PhD in Education from UNICAF.
The young man who grew up through ranks up to the top most position of president for the college raised concerns about Liberia’s seriousness to breakaway from the 1860s educational philosophy which he said was centered around exclusively educating children of freed and repatriated slaves and neglecting back then, the native residents who laid the foundation for the country that is today known as Liberia.
“This is one mistake we continue to thread on. The slave mentality continues to affect every fabric of our society, with education bearing the most painful part of it. Once a slave, the mindset becomes narrow and restricted to thinking that freedom is yet too far away. This is why they train their children in the same fashion, making them believe that a certain class of people does not deserve the opportunity to rise to certain levels. It is one of the reasons, names like Kollie, Tamba, Kemah, among many other traditional Liberian names were not allowed to attend the University of Liberia in those days. It is time for the system to improve beyond just allowing the once disallowed to attend universities,” Wehye said.
He clarified that it is not about the regular rhetoric of Congo-country people but understanding the fact that even those with purely non foreign names and attachment have enslaved themselves and continue to fail the country irreversibly.
There have been extreme poor performances of students over the years in public exams, including university entry placement tests as well as the West African schools certificate exams. The troubling experience once led to former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf declaring the entire education system as a complete mess.
It was in August 2013, when Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, then President of Liberia declared to the world that the country’s education system was a “mess.” The remark of the former President did not go down well with a number of people but, a lot more of other people agreed with her, accepting not only the fact that the education system was troubled but it might take even a long indefinite time to recover and become anything to be on par with others in the sub-region, lest one mentions beyond Africa’s borders.
Sirleaf suggested at a cabinet retreat back then that the education system required a complete overhaul. By then, all of the 25,000 high school students who sat placement and entrance exams administered by the University of Liberia, failed.
Her statement was intentional and it took the airwaves, including local and international media. She, among many other leaders who have served the country at the highest office (Presidency), however, takes blame for not doing enough to invest in the education of Liberian children at home, even though she, in particular, placed premium on hiring officials with records of high education received mainly in the United States and other parts of the world.
Dr. Wehye, the Liberian educator who once aspired to become a medical doctor but ended up putting on the regalia of education due to a terrifying experience that caused the death of his mother, spoke from his thesis which focused on “Addressing the input-output and outcome gap in education policies: A case study with Liberia.”
Wehye noted that “The purpose of this study was to investigate the gaps in input and outcome within Liberia’s educational policy management process,” and that “The study aim was to gain a deeper understanding of how policies are initiated and implemented throughout the policy management cycle with a specific focus on examining the perspectives of education stakeholders regarding past and current policies and practices in the field of education.”
He emphasized that his research employed the production function theory, conflict theory, and functionalism theory with lenses to evaluate the policy management processes of Liberia, something he said has proven to be not yet practical and effective in the education system of the country.
For the production function theory, he said it views educational policy as a means of generating specific benefits within the community through the utilization of inputs, employing particular educational processes, and producing outputs that yield desired outcomes but Liberia’s case is out of reach with this reality because not much is invested in the education system of the country to yield the required results.
“This is why you see those who are affluent enough prefer sending their children, loved ones and relatives to foreign countries for education rather than allowing them to acquire education here (Liberia). It is a disservice to the country that the political system is not doing enough to make education a serious national undertaking.”
“The functionality theory identifies two types of benefits resulting from educational policy as manifest effects and latent effects. Manifest effects pertain to the direct impact created by the educational policy which can be observed over time. This includes factors such as enrollment numbers, attendance rates, completion rates at designated educational levels, grade scores, knowledge transmission to subsequent generations, innovation of new products, and the direct resolution of societal problems. In contrast, latent benefits refer to those that are not immediately identifiable but can be observed through their outputs. For instance, while primary education may not yield immediate direct advantages for society, changes in literacy and numeracy levels can be observed. These changes enable policymakers to assess the outputs and outcomes generated by the inputs into the educational system and identify any gaps between the inputs and actual results,” Dr. Wehye said.
He discussed conflict theory as one which examines how education policies serve as a means to perpetuate class systems.
In his research findings, Dr. Wehye disclosed that “Liberia has historically employed norms associated with servitude/enslavement to gain and maintain power and control over the population. These norms have influenced the policy management process in a way that perpetuates certain cultural capital and convictions, limiting individuals from reaching their full potential.”
He said his research further indicates that certain segments of the population have been systematically disadvantaged, leading to disparities in educational opportunities, something that is creating more national problems and extreme poverty.
According to Wehye, his research findings imply that these norms have influenced the way policies have addressed issues related to education in Liberia and that the same policies have prioritized maintaining the status quo and perpetuating the existing power structures rather than focusing on ensuring equitable access to quality and relevant education at all levels.
“The implications of these findings are significant as they highlight the need for transformative changes in educational policies and practices in Liberia,” he said.
Unicaf is a for-profit online and blended learning higher education university founded by Nicos Nicolaou in 2012. The University partners with other universities, mostly in the UK, to provide university degrees to its students..
Unicaf is a leading provider of online and blended learning at tertiary education level and is headquartered in Cyprus.
Has partnership with universities in Ghana, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, among others and delivers full online education as well as physical classroom education in a number of countries around the world.
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