Teachers object to George Werner
The Secretary General of the National Teachers Association of Liberia (NTAL) Samuel Johnson says the Association maintains its objection to Education Minister George Warner, claiming that he is not fit for the job. Mr. Johnson alleges that the association has provided all the evidences to the previous Government, adding that the Senate had also passed a vote of no confidence in the Minister during the administration of former President Ellen Johnson – Sirleaf.
Speaking on a local radio this week, Mr. Johnson noted that President Weah’s administration shouldn’t have retained George Warner because has has allegedly spoiled the system for the Liberian students and teachers. The NTAL has called on the current government to remove Mr. Warner as Education Minister.
“This is the only country in the whole world where the Senate will vote no confidence in a person and the Executive continues to appoint this same person because of personal interest, this man is not in the interest of the education. He has denigrated the education sector, our local and international partners have problem with this man,” Mr. Johnson alleges.
He adds that the Association is willing to work with the educational sector to improve whatever George Warner’s administration created. “The Education Minister needs to get out of the Educational system because he is making no impact there, he was retained based on his personal contact he has with the Government but not because he knows the job. These people have their children out of the country and they do not care about the Liberian students and teachers that are here. We maintain our position that Werner should leave. He can be appointed anywhere else but not the educational system,” Mr. Johnson concludes.
In a related development, the spokesman of the Joint Resolution Committee of Grand Kru and Maryland Counties Teachers, Jacob Nyante says the group has abandoned classes until the Ministry of Education or Bridge pay them.
Speaking on a local radio talk show Thursday, 25 January Mr. Nyante said that they are teachers trained by Bridge and were assigned in the two counties. He added that on August 19, 2017, they graduated and took the new assignments in the same month. He claims that Bridge told them that within three months, their names would have been sent to the Ministry of Education to be placed on payroll.
“We put our chalks down immediately so that they can know we are serious. We seek Bridge and we were told that they do not have compensation for us, promising that they will make a follow up at the Ministry,” he claims further.
According to Mr. Nyante, they got motivated to put chalks down because Bridge allegedly submitted 224 names to the Education Ministry and out of that number, 20 persons allegedly had problems such as WAEC documents, C- certificate and high School diploma. Out of 204 persons remaining, he claims that 60 persons will be placed on payroll in February 2018 by the Bridge Human Resource.
“The 60 persons they are going to put on payroll and forgetting about the remaining 144 persons will cause a serious problem because we were all in the struggle, we got trained and we worked, their documents are all in tight. Paying few and leaving the rest out will be unfair to the 144 persons to be left out. We have complained to the CEO and DEO of the Counties,” he concludes.
By Ethel A. Tweh–Edited by Winston W. Parley
