MOE brags of 1.5 Million enrollment in schools

The Ministry of Education has reported improvement in the educational sector, saying over the past years there had been significant efforts relative to students’ enrollment in various schools across the country.

Addressing officials and staff of the Ministry during honoring of 275 retirees on Wednesday, March 29, Deputy Education Minister for Administration Aaron Tingba disclosed, “Our student enrollment is up from approximately 600,000 in 2005 to a little over 1.5 Million in 2016.”

He said the massive improvement in the educational sector is as a result of significant efforts made by the retirees some of whom were teachers, District Education Officers or DEO, among others.

The Deputy Minister, who was in a joyous mood, lauded the retirees for taking up time to serve the country, saying, “The role you play as a teacher and DEO in your various counties in providing education to our kids under difficult circumstance is commendable, the Ministry wouldn’t have made this improvement without your contribution.”
“You have helped to mold the minds of Liberians, and your endless and payless contribution to this nation will forever remain in the annals of this country, darkened by history.”

He described the retirees as one of the great turnaround stories of Liberia’s economic and education recovery, the rebound of the educational system following 14 years of civil war.

According to Minister Tingba, top priorities of the ministry include improving the learning outcomes of the sector to have the brightest brains in the classroom, through literacy and numeracy test at primary level.

He noted that infrastructure such as textbooks, desks, toilets, libraries technologies, chairs repairing and most of all, building additional new schools are among top priorities boost the sector in order to get on par with neighboring countries.

He said other priorities include teaching quality and bringing in international teachers, including expansion of Peace Corps Volunteers and other reading reform alternatives as well as curriculum that will help to improve reading skills of students.

The deputy education boss added that cleansing the payroll to bring in qualified teachers, including changing of school calendar, potentially rolling out test, school feeding, coding school, mobile payment, rules on leaving schools on Friday are all important to the improvement of the education system, and the students at large.

By Lewis S. Teh