22/07/2018
Today, the Assistant Minister for Industry, was live as Guest Speaker in the program marking the Commencement Exercise and Closing Program of the successful end of Academic 2017/2018 of the Bishop James Willington Ferguson High School, Opposite SKD Sports Complex, Paynesvilles, Liberia.
Hon. Saryon speech today outline five major indicators that have long been eating up the fabric of our educational sector.
He also provided ways forward to mitigate the many contradictions in the sector that needs all of us contributions under president Weah's Agenda "Pro-Poor for Prosperity and National Development."
Below is the full speech of Hon. Morris K. Saryon.
Mr. Principal
Mr. Vice Principals
Board of Directors
Teaching and Supporting Staff
Student Council Government,
Parents and Guidance
Officials of Government
Members of the Fourth Estate
The Graduating Class
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
Let me start this occasion by appreciating the young academician who just concluded introducing me as your humble guest speaker.
I must confess in this public gathering, it looks like the junior comrade knows me more than I know myself.
For and on behalf of me and my family, I say thank you for such a fascinating and excellent introduction, I could not have done it better than you did, once more, I say thank you very much.
Permit me to therefore extend my profound gratitude and tenacity, to the administration for the invite, my office will perpetually appreciate such opportunity to speak not only to the students or school administrations, but also, to the parents and guidance that are major players in our educational sector.
Least I forget, let me extend my congratulatory and best wishes to the graduating class for job well done, and I hope that you use this not as an acknowledgement of your past achievements, but as a challenge to do more studies as you prepare yourself for greater future responsibilities.
Also, to the parents and guidance, I say in a very loud voice, thank you so very kindly for the level of supports you have rendered your children throughout this academic year that has come to a climax.
And I hope you will continue, and even do more than you did this year, as it might interest you to know that, education is exceedingly instrumental for the realization of one’s innate self, strength, natural fitness, and factual being, and that education is so necessary and essential, its insufficiency or absence may lead one to choose improper path of life, and of course, I am of the opinion that you all in this hall want the best for your children.
As we officially close on this academic calendar, I want us to make a sober reflection on our past challenges, as this would enable us derive at a logical conclusion, useful in clearing the mess that have long engulfed our educational system.
To stick to the principle conceptualization of the aforementioned, I would like to elucidate on few indicators, responsible for the mess that has been eating up the fabric of educational system, in this globalized and knowledgebase world that is technologically interconnected.
1. I will begin with “Parents Attitude toward Today’s Students”
Parents are expected to play significant roles in the education of their children. Apart from the fact that they pay school fees and other levies, they buy textbooks, uniforms and other educational materials required by the school’s administration, in addition to this, they are expected to supervise their academic works and give them moral training.
Parents are also expected to visit schools from time to time to find out how their children are behaving with a view to taking corrective measures where and when necessary.
However, the failure of our parents to play these roles amount to the many contributing indicators that have negatively affected our educational sector, leaving our students languishing behind their fellow counterparts in West Africa and the world at large.
More so, the inability of parents to provide proper guidance to their children, coupled with the lack of basic instructional materials provision are all major players that are eating up the fabric of our educational system.
Parents, remember that the only true partner our children will ever have is the book they learn today.
I must admit to you parents; in the midst of the many financial challenges, you have tried your best, but, your best will only be good enough when it is clearly seen in the output of our children due to your thorough input.
2. Secondly, let us focus on a strange phenomenon I called “Out of field Teaching”
This might be seeing as strange phenomenon but it currently exists in all walls of our learning environments.
Out of field teaching is another serious problem in our educational sector in Liberia that is affecting our students’ academic performance. Out of field teaching is a commonly used term, that refers to teachers who are assigned to teach subjects, when they are not suitably qualified to do so.
Teachers with B-Certificate are stipulated to teach at primary schools and lower junior secondary schools, but today, we find them teaching in senior secondary school. Another instance, a graduate of Mathematics is made to teach Physics or a graduate of Social Study is made to teach English Language.
To build a robust and resilience system recognized internationally, we need to cut off this out of field teaching habit, as this will enable us to compute in the comity of nations.
3. Thirdly, let us look also at the “Governmental Factors”
It is obvious that government teachers are very unhappy with the teaching environment, and they will attribute their unhappiness to government, because of low income incentive and lack of recognition, the inability of the government to put in defense mechanism to protect the welfares of both public and private school teachers, and also their inability to enforce the standard regulation, are just good enough to shift the ever growing blame on our government.
With the present of Prof. Dean AnsuSonii and his team at the Ministry of Education, and under his Excellency George M. Weah agenda, “pro-poor for prosperity and national development, I am optimistic that our system will be revamped and we will produce quality and not quantity.
4. Fourthly, “Improper Usage of the Internet”
The internet, whose popularity and usage has loomed large, has not been helpful either. This is because of its corner-cutting format of words for the purpose of speed during communication. In the process, a lot of grammatical and punctuation rules are broken, yet regarded as acceptable or web-friendly.
The pervading influences of the internet and other sources of mass communication if not cut-till will lead us to graduating students that will use “I” instead of “are”, “dem” instead of “Them” in hand written communication.
I even doubt if it is not happening now.
5. Fifthly, “the Administrators of the School”
It has been noticed that many school administrators in Liberia only pay lip services to school program.
For instance, hardly can one find in majority of our schools, any program deliberately designed to make students really appreciate and live for academic excellence as expected.
Further deliberate efforts are not made to discourage “Pidgin English” which has become too common in all of our learning institutions. Today, Liberian students are exposed to different types of pidgin, from home growing pidgin to street and musical pidgin, which could blur the lines between the proper terms of English if not correctly guided by the school administrators with appropriate measures and punishments. Some school administrators are more interested in generating money from parents and students than instituting programs that will help to improve the system.
Finally, can we change the narrative? Of course yes.
We can change the narrative provided that our educational stakeholders and other development partners see education as a medium of all-comprising developments.
We can change the narrative when our parents accept the fact that a child with no education is like a weapon without a bullet.
We can change the narrative provided that school administrators would view Education as a means to reform the minds of the youth.
And we can surly change the narrative when our students see education as the factor of change in one life.
Once again, I say thanks for affording me the platform to enlarge my thoughts on the sector that needs all of us contributions.
God bless you
