By Boima J.V.Boima

Despite the thousand cries for a standardized educational system in post war Liberia, students are still sitting on the floor and teachers are still struggling in many public schools in Liberia’s Capital, Monrovia.

While other countries within the Mano River region concentrate on addressing the needs of public schools and regulating the activities of private schools, the government of Africa’s oldest republic pay what is described by many as “lesser attention” to the educational needs of public schools thus allowing the masses to be subjected to what is term as ‘exploitations’ by the private schools.

In a recent joint survey conducted by the Liberian Journalists for Good Governance and Human Rights (LJGGHR) and the Ceasefire Liberia Team (CFL) on the educational system of the public schools in Monrovia, students were seen sitting on the floors in classrooms during the school day.

In most of the classes, teachers stand in one place as there doesn’t seem to be any space for them to roam, while doing their jobs thus preventing them from demonstrating to their students as required by the school curriculum. This situation is due to the congestion in most of the public classes.

These conditions, which are looming in almost all of the over 75% of public schools that the two teams visited in Monrovia, were more terrible at two respective schools: the Marvii Sonii Elementary, Junior High school in Clara Town and the special project school in the estate of Steven Tolbert. In these schools the majority of students’ rights are violated by the government of Liberia, as they are deprived of the required learning environment that their parents are paying taxes for.

“We have a serious problem with seating accommodation in this school. As you may see, we sit on bare floor throughout the day. This situation continues even during examinations,” Musa Kiazulu, a 5th grade student of the Marvii Sonii Elementary school.

Though the situation seems to be appalling to many students and their parents, to Morris Yates, a 4th grade student at the Marvii Sonii school, the situation is better than not going to school at all.

“Even though there is no seat, I feel happy for returning back to school after five years of not attending. I feel the challenge to learn and pay attention to my lessons in this poor school, where we sit on the bare floor to write our notes offered by our teachers,” Morris Yates said amidst laughter from his classmates.

Though the majority of these students called for government intervention in solving the problem of seating accommodations in the public schools within Monrovia, Sanah David a 9th grader, who was seen relaxing in her chair, which she brought with her from home, said poor sanitation in the school is the main problem. “Just look at the that water well, it is the main source of our water in this school. As for the toilets, I would like you to just make a stroll around the facility and see what is going on there,” Sanah said, while pointing at an old dilapidated water well in the compound of the Marvii Sonii school.

To the acting vice principal of instructions at the Sornii Marvii school, the problem is not the result of ‘government’s lesser attention’ as claimed by many, but rather it is due to the high influx of students that were admitted into the school.

“The government told us to admit 60 students per class. But due to the hike in the fees of private schools and the high demands for public schools, we were left with no alternative than to admit these pupils. This has caused the situation to be like it is now. Therefore I don’t want people to blame the government for this,” the Fred B.K. Saydue, acting vice principal for instruction said.

At the special project high school in Steven Tolbert, where the school facilities are in poor condition, the situation appears to be even more terrible. Seated in his office, with a narrow space for his entrance and exit, Rev. A. Walter Lee III, the vice principal for student affairs, described the situation in the school as ‘appalling’. He pointed out the lack of fence, good toilets, and classrooms as some of the major challenges that they are faced with in the school and called on the government’s intervention into the matter.