Parents want WASSCE aborted

The National Parents and Teachers Association Network of Liberia, (NAPTANOL) says government should abort the 2017 West African Senior Schools Certificates Examination (WASSCE) due to the lack of basic facilities in schools, weeks after the West African Examination Council (WAEC) announced that government would not pay exam fees for students here.

NAPTANOL president Mr. J. Mason Saweler told the NewDawn newspaper on Monday, 27 November at the organization’s office on Center Street in Monrovia that due to financial problems that parents are facing here, they are unable to pay their children’s WASSCE fees this year.

He says students are begging at some political parties’ offices, individual homes and offices to help them pay their WASSCE fees, complaining that this is happening because government has allegedly abandoned its responsibility.

According to Mr. Saweler, parents had the hope that government would have paid their children’s WASSCE fees this year based on its alleged promise, adding that government’s decision that it will pay fees for all 12th graders shock parents.

The PTA leader vows that by next academic year, the PTA network here will become more involved with the Ministry of Education in order to make the education system here better.

He says WASSCE was given here twice as a test case to see whether students would be prepared for further tests. But he expresses observation that the students that sat the exams didn’t do well due to the lack of basic facilities in schools.

NAPTANOL has expressed disappoint in government’s firm position in administering the 2017 WASSCE in the face of alleged lack of basic facilities in schools.

According to Mr. Saweler, most of the schools here do not have equipped science laboratories and libraries to compete with other West African students who are also sitting the 2017 WASSCE.

He claims that currently there are few schools like J.J. Roberts, Tubman High and the Firestone Schools that have better school facilities to sit this year’s WASSCE.

He blames government for the lack of libraries and laboratories in schools, saying government accredited schools that do not have those basic school facilities. Mr. Saweler also blames parents for not asking schools administrations to make the basic school facilities available.

By Samuel P. Kamara–Edited by Winston W. Parley