UNIFICATION CITY, Margibi – Public school students in Lower Margibi for more than four hours on Tuesday besieged major entrances near the Roberts International Airport. The students were protesting the absence of teachers in their classrooms for nearly one month.

The more than 1,500 students are from the Harbel Multilateral High School, Robert Stanley Caulfield High School, Dolo Town, Peter Town and RIA Public schools. Students gathered as early as 10 a.m. at the intersection of the roads to the airport, Monrovia, and the Firestone Rubber Plantation.

Vehicles and motorcycles movements in either of the directions of the roads were prevented from proceeding. Travelers using the airport were also affected by the students’ action. Passengers coming into the country through RIA had to walk for more than 15 minutes, towing their luggage on their heads to cross through the crowd. Other users visiting the airport had to also disembark their vehicles and walked similarly to cross the gathering and reach the airport.

Travelers entering the country walking with luggage. Photo: Gbatemah Senah

At the same time, travelers coming from Monrovia going through Firestone left their vehicles near the office of the Liberia Civil Aviation Authority, at least ten minutes to the Firestone security checkpoint to get a motorcycle or another cab to continue their journey. Similarly, people leaving Firestone or Buchanan and other areas in the same direction left from their vehicles to cross the intersection.

After nearly an hour of intervention, the protesting students agreed to abandon their action and discuss with John Buway and Gorma Minnie, Margibi’s Superintendent and Education Officer, respectively.

Margibi Superintendent John Zubah Buway. Photo: Gbatemah Senah

The students walked with the two officials for nearly 40 minutes to Harbel where they held discussions and agreed to discontinue their protest and return to class on Wednesday.

Buway and Minnie promised to negotiate with teachers to return to the classroom.

Following a meeting with teachers and school administrators, Buway said the teachers would return to classes while their concerns are being examined.

However, Minnie warned that teachers who would not return to the classroom would be replaced.

More than 2,500 students also took the streets in Kakata on Monday, preventing traffic flow. Reports from Grand Bassa also revealed that students of Bassa High School in Buchanan had gathered on Monday to protest the effects of the ongoing teachers’ go-slow.

Cars parked along the side of the highway due to the protest. Photo: Gbatemah Senah

Bobby Zinneh, a spokesman for the students, said their demand is for the return of their teachers in the classroom and was not in solidarity with the teacher’s action.

Public school teachers have embarked on a go-slow for nearly one week after a one weeklong ultimatum demanding the dismissals or resignations of Education Minister George Werner and the Superintendent of the Monrovia Consolidated School System, Adolphus Benjamin Jacobs.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, September 21, the National Teachers Association of Liberia called on public school teachers across the country to lay down their chalks pending the resignations or dismissals of Werner and Jacobs.

NTAL claims that the two officials have violated the constitution, the Revised Education Law of 2011, and the 1964/1965 Act that created the MCSS.

Several groups, including the MCSS Teachers Association, Concerned University Students of the Ministry of Education Local Scholarship Program, National Health Workers Association of Liberia, and the Consolidated Human Rights Advocacy Movement also signed a resolution supporting the teachers’ action.

NTAL’s vice president for north-central region, David Konyon, Sr. Photo: Gbatemah Senah

In an interview, David Konyon, NTAL’s vice president for the northern-central region, said Werner has introduced policies that continue to increase the downward trend of the country’s education system in the name of reform.

He said teachers and education officers are being dismissed, retired, and replaced without genuine reasons. He controls counties in north and central Liberia including Lofa, Bong, and Nimba.

Joel Dennis, a parliamentarian of the MCSS Teachers Association, said they are also protesting because MCSS Superintendent Jacobs has continued to mismanage the activities of the capital city’s school system.

He said since the reopening of schools, teachers within the system have not received instructional materials, including lesson plan books. “Teachers are using plain sheets to plan their lessons,” he said.

He also said that Jacobs has wrongfully dismissed teachers on claims of poor and false credentials. “He does not have the requisite qualification for the position he occupies,” he added.

The teachers had earlier complained about the MCSS superintendent to the House of Representatives for allegedly falsifying his academic credentials.

A report of an investigation conducted by the House’s Committee on Education and Public Administration headed by Representative Matthew Zarzar said it received a certificate from then Education Minister Edmonia Tarpeh issued by the National Clearinghouse in Virginia, USA on October 22, 2014, through the National Commission on Higher Education stating that Jacobs was awarded a Master of Science Degree.

MCSS Teachers Association Parliamentarian, Joel Dennis. Photo: Gbatemah Senah

It said the committee, however, discovered that the attestation was issued on October 22, 2014, after he was appointed in 2012. “This raises more concern,” the report said.

The committee said its investigation also revealed no proof to Jacobs’ claim of acquiring high school education from the William V.S. Tubman High School in 1988. Though he also claimed to have earned a bachelor’s degree from the Milton Margai College of Education in Sierra Leone in 1995, the committee said its investigation revealed that the college was offering only certificates in education and not degrees. It further revealed that the college’s first-degree commencement in education was held in 2010.

When invited to clarify the claims, the committee said Jacobs informed its members that he could not locate his original resume on which he was vetted.

It meanwhile recommended that Jacob is dismissed in order to maintain peace and tranquility and restore dignity to the education sector. “Mr. Jacobs has violated the principles of good conduct such as honesty, the dignity of public office and improper behavior such as fraudulent act that was uncovered,” the report said. “We cannot afford any disruption of classes when we are already in an educational crisis. We cannot undermine ourselves by knowingly maintaining unethical transgressors in positions of trust unless our intent to transform the educational system is political.”

The committee further recommended that the commission of a finance and compliance audits at the MCSS.

Featured photo by Gbatemah Senah