Commencement Convocation of the Gbarnga, Bong county Annex of the LICOSESS College of Education

Speech Delivered at the 7th Commencement Convocation of the Gbarnga, Bong County Annex of the LICOSESS College of Education

June 25, 2022 @ Gbarnga Administrative Building.

 

“Taking responsibility of your responsibilities; No more excuses for “NOT” doing the right thing!

 

Ladies and gentlemen.

 

It seems to me that irresponsibility is becoming a tradition in the education sector. Two attributes of irresponsibility being exhibited by parents, teachers, students, and government actors include:

 

· blaming others when things go wrong. …

 

· having trouble learning from mistakes

 

When was the last time you heard a parent saying that their child failed because they could not afford to give them even breakfast before going to school or helping them with homework?

When was the last time the mathematics teacher said that his students failed because he did not spend sufficient time in following up individual evaluation?

When was the last time a student said I failed WAEC because I refused to pay attention to mathematics in class?

When was the last time that government took responsibility for mass failure in public exams or WAEC taking responsibility for poor mathematics results due to delayed mathematical set?

 

When will we learn that political manipulations in education makes education a “game” in which the ‘ends justifies the means’. When government declared free tertiary education and early childhood education programs are more expensive than university education, then you know the “end” being sought is is not quality and relevant education but votes from voting age population.

 

At this time and during this occasion here in Central Liberia, LICOSESS takes responsibility for the quality of teachers we have supplied to our school system! The good, the bad, the ugly. As humans, we have made mistakes over the last two decades of our existence in the form of unscientific recruitment, easily falsified credentials, and weak collaborative partnerships with the schools recruiting our graduates. These attributes of irresponsibility are changing! The following actions are further endorsed for execution:

 

· Reading is hereby introduced as an entrance and an exit evaluation tool in addition to Math and English. Using the USAID-Read Liberia book 1 and 2, teacher aspirants will be evaluated for reading rate and comprehension skills as prescribed by the Ministry of Education and international benchmark.

 

Remedial courses will be introduced for students not meeting the prescribed benchmark. Each annex should set up a Reading Committee, including the lecturers of phonics, english, literature, testing and evaluation and instructional methodology. We are working on proposals which will assist us include reading as a college course with up to 12 credits. Reading is is very significant as it embodies comprehension, application, triangulation, critical thinking, imagery, ….

 

Let me also use this medium to call on the government of Liberia and international partners to assist LICOSESS to strengthen her capacity by providing hard copies of the USAID-read Liberia Packages.

 

To jealously protect the sanctity of those entering the profession, we must eliminate the business model of recruitment which are characteristics of privately run TTIs. This can be done by exposing access to performance base grants and subsidies which are tied to issues like reading benchmark for all teachers, community and school awareness against drugs, corruption, sexual harassments, etc

 

In some African tradition, the younger siblings do not get married before the elder. There is a sense in which I cherish this tradition and have always used it in the running of our programs. I have often told my county coordinators that until LICOSESS Central campus in Monrovia is married, county annexes will not get marry.

 

May I announce to you that 2022 has already witnessed LICOSESS Central wedding! The wedding took place between the National commission on Higher education and LICOSESS after we had paid our prescribed bride price. We have been elevated to a full Bachelor granting institution. No wonder why the bible says that “he, that finds a wife, finds a good thing and obtains favor from God.”

 

While on our honeymoon, LICOSESS was selected by USAID as the only private teacher training college, among 8 others, to train 3500 ECE and primary teachers in the next 4 years.

 

In literary terms, I congratulate our wife, the NCHE for accepting our proposal. We promise to make your parents (Ministry of Education/GOL) proud. As an institution, we want to be hired for the supervision of National Mock exams, WASSCE supervision, administration and correction, school field data collection, assistive monitoring and supervision of rural schools, etc. We can achieve all this by using our students who will benefit by gaining the field experience and also receive subsidized fees as an incentive for their work. In short, we don’t want free money from government!

 

Since we are now married at the higher level, it is time for the counties annexes to also find a wife. To do so, you must be seen as a responsible suiter by taking responsibilities.

 

Hence, the issue of printing T-shirts and ID cards from the central office is hereby decentralized. Counties are encouraged to solicit quotations from printing houses for submission in their next circle of budgeting. The discussion surrounding graduation materials are ongoing for inclusion in the decentralized activity.

 

I commend the Bong team for cooperating with our vision to purchase an acre of land in gbarnga city. May I announce to you that after four years, we have finally completed payment and the land deed is here. We broke grounds yesterday and construction work is to begin soon. In this light, we are currently reviewing the contribution Central Administration can make to this initiative. I ask the County Coordinator to include in every semester budget capital expenditure towards implementation of this endeavor

 

To my graduates, patience, perseverance, self-confidence, integrity and faith are my guiding principles which I offer for adoption. Patience will take you through crisis by believing that you were made to overcome crisis. Integrity will make others believe that the cause for your fight is worth supporting and faith which is defined as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, will be the fuel that keeps the fire of transformation burning inside you.

 

Go and be new ambassadors of your alma matter.

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