Liberia is planning to hand over the running of all its public primary schools and nursery schools to private companies and charities reports BBC.
Liberia issues with their public school is overcrowding and lack of teaching resources, in 2013 at least 25,000 high school graduates failed to pass the University of Liberia’s entrance examination prompting President Johnson Sirleaf to brand the education system a “mess”.
The Education Minister George Werner has been looking for a dramatic change to improve the education standards in the West African country. According to BBC, Minister Werner has admitted that the education system has been “in a state of decay for the last three decades” as a result of years of conflict and recent Ebola epidemic. Further adding that the system is failing the nation’s children.
Werner realized that a long term gradual plan by the government in charge was not going to solve the problems. Therefore, ventured into partnering with the private sector. Where the schools will be run privately, but the education will still be free to all.
A pilot project that is due to start in September, 50 primary schools out of 5000 in Liberia will be taken over by Kenya-based Company Bridge International Academies. Bridge International Academies has over 359 schools in Kenya and seven in Uganda.
Bridge International Academies is known for providing “Academy-in-a-box” model where teaching materials are developed centrally and delivered by teachers using tablet computers. The computers are used to monitor teachers and student progress.
United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on the right to education has been angered by Liberia’s move to hand education to the private sector.
“Provision of public education of good quality is a core function of the state,” Mr Singh said, adding “Abandoning this to the commercial benefit of a private company constitutes a gross violation of the right to education.”
