The Montserrado County Students Union officially lunch its 17 day BAck to School Awareness Campaign today at a press conference. The President, Mohammed Dolley, read the press statement with members of the fouth estate in full attendance. Below is the Press Statement that was read: PRESSS RELEASE Good afternoon, we converge on this historic day to mark the official lunch of the Montserrado County Students union’s 17 day Back-to-school awareness campaign, under the theme “OUR EDUCATION, THE DEPENABLE TOOL FOR LIBERIA’S FUTURE”. The 17day campaign is divided into three segments namely: Awareness activities for the back-to-school preparation, Ebola orphans and affected children identification, and lastly, recommendations to the National Government on the re-opening of schools. SEGMENT ONE: AWARENESS ACTIVITIES FOR THE BACK-TO-SCHOOL PREPARATION The 17day back-to-school awareness campaign aims to raise awareness among both high school students and parents about the re-opening of schools, thereby encouraging high school students to pick their books and start rehearsing in order to grappling with the over five(5) consecutive month spent out of schools. While parents will also be encourage to do everything possible to make sure that their children go to school even in the midst of hardship. They (Parents) will also be told to start mounting pressure on their children to pick their books and start studying as well. The 17 day back-to-school awareness campaign comprises of several activities namely: (1) print, electronic, and social media engagements, and churches, mosques and haiti center engagements, (2) door-to-door/market table to market table conversations and (3) parade along with a symposium, and lastly a climaxing program. The above activities will be implemented in 17 day thereby constituting our 17 day back to school back to school awareness campaign. While it is true that our back to school awareness campaign will last for 17 day, including today which marks the official lunching program, Sundays will be used as resting days for the implementing team, therefore, Sundays will not formed part of our counting of the 17 day that the back to school awareness campaign will comprise of. This means that the campaign officially starts today, January 10, and will last until January 31, 2015. The 17 day awareness campaign will continue on Monday, January 12, 2015 with print, electronic and social media, Haiti centers engagements, back to school awareness text messages exchanges simultaneously starting along with the door to door/ market table to market table back to school awareness conversations. The print, electronic, and social media, Haiti centers engagements will last for the first six consecutive day, while the door to door/ market table to market table back to school awareness will last for 14 day within the seventeen electoral districts that make up Montserrado County. Next, will be a one day parade which will start from Cellcom GSM Company on Capitol Bye Pass to the William V.S. Tubman High School on 12th Street Sinkor, where a symposium will be held with parents, students, and administrators serving as audience to climax the parade. Lastly, there will be a one day climaxing program where musicians, comedians, drama teams etc will be invited with the sole purpose of raising the back to school awareness among parents, students, and the general public. While on the field during the 14 day door to door/ market table to market table conversation, we will motivate and counsel students to leave the streets, and pick out their books and start studying in order to get their brains use to studies again after over five month of not been in school . We will also encourage parents to start mounting pressure behind their children to pick up their books, and start rehearsing once again. While we anticipate some students and parents to concur with our requests, we are also cognizant that there may be some students who may not have the opportunity to go to school at all because, Ebola ransacked their lives, and left them parentless, and hopeless. This takes me to the second segment of our 17 day back to school awareness campaign: Ebola orphans, and affected children identification. While in the field, our 49 member team will be assigned to a district or two on a day, and the 49 member team will be divided according to the communities within each district that we will visit. Each subset of the 49 member team that will go in the communities will be given a form to jot down the names, numbers, and all other necessary information of Ebola orphans, and affected children that may be identify while in the field. After their identifications, those names will also be given to our seventeen electoral districts coordinators for authentication. Upon authenticating the names of the Ebola orphans and affected children, we will then have a fund raising program to get the tuitions of those children paid, as well as to buy their books, uniforms, and shoes. While we anticipate to raise funds aims at getting Ebola orphans and affected children back in school, we are also aware of the sky rocketing cost of private schools tuitions, and the very little time we have to meet up to these goals before schools finally open. This takes me to the third segment of our 17 day back to school awareness campaign: Recommendations to the National Government on the reopening of schools. For more than five consecutive months, the Ebola Virus have exacerbated the living condition of the masses of our people, businesses have shut down, our parents come home worry everyday about how to provide food for their homes for the next day. What`s more, schools openings are around the corner, and the ministry of Education have come up with a schedule telling our parents to pay our school fees in six days. Wow! Where will our parents who had their children in private schools even get the money from? Are we, students prepared to go back to school after more than five consecutive months out of school? The answers to these questions and many more have prompted us to recommend the following to the national government of Liberia on the reopening of schools: 1. We applaud the Ministry of Education for their decision to reopen schools, but we respectfully disagree with their timetable for the reopening of schools. Their (MOE) timeline states that registration should start from January 12, - 17 2015, while the official resumption of classes will commence on February 2, 2015. Against this background, we, the Montserrado County Students Union that have the statutory mandate to coordinate the affairs of the kindergarten, elementary, junior and senior high school students as well as immediate high school graduates in Montserrado County are appealing to the National Government to reschedule the official date for the resumption of classes from February 2, 2015 to March 2, 2015, thereby allowing registrations and other preparations for the reopening of schools to take place in the course of 48 days. We believe that this will give our parents who had students in private schools ample time to pay school fees, while we, the students will also have ample time to prepare for the reopening of schools. 2. We also applaud the MOE for their decision to make primary education`s tuition in all public schools free, while secondary education`s tuition is 700LD. We believe that MOE`s decision term to encourage more parents to send their children to public schools, which is a very good move. But the huge number of students that are attending the very few public schools in Liberia can no longer be overlooked or contained. There are insufficient classrooms, sitting capacities, infrastructure etc at the very few public schools as well. Last academic year, The Williams V.S. Tubman High School had five twelve grade classes (12-1 - 12-5), and in each 12th grade class, there were 54 students, while there were six eleven grade classes ( 11-1-- 11-6), and seven tenth grade classes (10-1 – 10-7). This clearly speaks to the insufficient classes and huge number of students that are already in public schools. Therefore, we think that public schools do not have any student vacancy, making it impossible for private school students to transfer to public schools. While we applaud the MOE for instituting strategies aim at encouraging more parents to send their children to public schools, we believe that the first step in doing so is to make available sufficient classes, sitting capacities etc, but until that is done, the MOE needs to prioritize the tuition payment of private school students, just as they have prioritized the tuitions of public school students because both public and private school students are the future leaders of Liberia.. This also supports our first recommendation of rescheduling the date for the reopening of school. 3. We are also appealing to the National government to help our parents pay our school fees by subsidizing all private high schools in Liberia with 40% of students` tuitions. To make this work, we are appealing to our direct representatives (53rd National Legislative) to direct 15% of their signature bonus that were received by each of them for the sale of oil block (LB 16) to subsidizing private schools. We are also calling on Her Excellency Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and His Excellency, Amb. Joseph N. Boakai , (President and Vice President of Liberia) to direct 30% of their January salaries to subsidizing private schools as well. We believe that if this recommendation is taking into consideration, it will get more students in schools, and on time, and also reduce parents’ worrisome responsibility of paying students tuitions. Note: We are aware that the MOE has mandated all public schools not collect a cent from any parent for primary education`s tuition, and as for the secondary division, the stipulated amount for tuition is 700LD. Therefore, we expect all public schools administrators to abide by this mandate without any hesitation. Meanwhile, we have assigned our seventeen electoral districts coordination teams to the public schools in their district to monitor the registration process. Finally, we call on all high school students of Montserrado County to please start gearing up for the reopening of schools, while we are also calling on all parents to please do everything possible to send their children to school even it means spending their last money. Moreover, we are anticipating that all of our recommendations will be taking into consideration for the successful conduct of the academic year 2015. On behalf of the leadership and memebrs of MONSU, I do hereby officially lunch the 17 Day Back to School Awareness Campaign Thank you very much for your time. Signed: _______________________ Freelance Paye Secretary General Approved: ______________________ Mohammed Dolley President
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 21:25:23 +0000
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