Bush school has never helped Liberian children

Why are parents in rural Liberia leading their children to doom with bush schools that had never brought any change to civilization and cultural improvement? That it took the Superintendent of Bong County, Madam Esther Walker, to tour school campuses in Gbarnga and its environs to observe students had abandoned classes for traditional school speaks to the…

Report that children in Bong County are abandoning classes to instead, attend Poro and Sande or traditional schools is both disappointing and saddening. In this age when children around the world are glued to technology and digital education, for Liberian children to opt for practices that had left their ancestors and parents behind is unthinkable.

Why are parents in rural Liberia leading their children to doom with bush schools that had never brought any change to civilization and cultural improvement? All that comes out of those traditional schools, as we have experienced in past decades are nothing but poverty, illiteracy, poor health, and standard of life.

That it took the Superintendent of Bong County, Madam Esther Walker, to tour school campuses in Gbarnga and its environs to observe students had abandoned classes for traditional school speaks to the fact that something is seriously or fundamentally wronged with our education system.

Why would parents, guardians, and children take less interest in formal education than the traditional school where all they learn is keeping home, hunting, and farming? As much as informal education is important for cultural purposes, they offer very little in terms of societal progress and modernity.

But how is the ministry of education making academic studies interesting to retain students in class rather than sending them out to become ruffians and deviants? There seem to be no clear answers from education authorities in the country, who are bent on amassing wealth thru exorbitant fees, exploiting students and parents.

It is difficult to understand that while students and parents in other parts of the world are sacrificing to get an education that would change their lives, students and parents in Liberia are turning their eyes the other way to tradition that has never brought improvement.

The unfortunate situation in Bong County is a clarion call to educational authorities that it’s time to wake up from their slumber and inject new dynamism in the educational sector, not only to attract but to retain students in class. If all students see are poorly prepared instructors asking for money and sex in exchange for grades, they would abandon school for other less profitable activities, as we are seeing right now.

The Bong scenario should not be left with Superintendent Walker alone to derive a solution. All hands should be on deck, including parents, community, youth groups, and religious leaders should come on board to save our dear country from collapse.

This would require putting more money or investing more in the education sector by training more teachers and revising the curriculum to meet current world standards as well as keeping students busy in the classroom.

Time is running out. We need to act now to save our nation’s future which is the youth. To leave them to wallop in ignorance and illiteracy is counter-productive to building a better Liberia.https://thenewdawnliberia.com/bong-supt-ordered-bush-school-closed/