LIBERIA: 'There's Power in Women Literacy'

Liberian Ambassador to the European Union and the Benelux Countries, Conmany B. Wesseh, has outlined the adverse effects of illiteracy on postwar Liberia and the advantage of women education and called for sustained fight against mediocrity and academic fraud.

The former political activist, who has emphasized the advantage of women education, hailed the Sirleaf Administration for making education a major part of the concessionaire agreements and recommended that it must be a national policy and action.

The Liberian European ambassador expressed the views last Wednesday when he addressed the 44th Anniversary of the International Literacy Day organized by the National Adult Education Association of Liberia (NAEAL) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education of Liberia.

Addressing the program attended by an array of government officials and representatives of UN organizations on the theme, The Power of Women's Literacy In Liberia, Amb Wesseh noted that the day was significant to him for two reasons.

The first reason, he said, was that it gave him the opportunity to pay tribute to the forerunners of Liberia's Adult Literacy Program such as Roye B. Bloh, Jr., and Stanley Bedell, and second, because there was much to explore in this year's theme.

He said even though many define literacy in the simple concept of having the ability to read and write some 780 million people around the world today were unable to read or write. Of this number, he said, quoting UN statistics, two-thirds were women while 94 – 115 million children lack access to education.

He said Liberia embraced the concept of providing education opportunity for adults since the founding of the International Literacy Day on November 17, 1965 and since celebrating the day for first time two years later in 1967 in addition to government acceleration program for education.He however regretted that the nation has very little to show today for those many years of engagement and programming.

Today, he said, the nation's literacy ranking stood at 45% - considering the calculations of Adult Education Division of the Ministry of Education based on the final results of the 2008 National Housing and Population Census – or 30%, considering conservative international statistics.

A further look at the statistics, the Liberian envoy said, revealed that between 10 and 15% or two-thirds of literate Liberians were women.

The statistics, he said, would mean one thing: “we are faced with the grim truth that the literacy statistics, unreliable or confusing as they may be, expose the gap between what we say and what we do for the enlightenment of society.”

Mr. Wesseh expressed little wonder then that Liberia was ranked amongst the poorest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa because, according to him, world reports have shown clear connections between illiteracy and countries in severe poverty and between illiteracy and prejudice against women.

“In our recent history, we can say that our low literate population impacted our country very negatively in many ways,” he observed. He said not only was illiteracy a threat to democracy but that it also undermines the making of wise choices in the selection of leaders and development priorities.

Mr. Wesseh came short of saying in what way illiteracy affected Liberia's presidential and parliamentary elections in 2005 and how it is likely to affect next years elections, but proceeded to list the adverse effects of illiteracy on a postwar society like Liberia.

“Illiteracy makes Liberians vulnerable to charlatans and demagogues who exploit the legitimate grievances of the people to create chaos and even violent conflicts to pursue their personal and, too often, criminal agendas.

Illiteracy contributed to a large measure to the level of destruction and prolongation of the 14 years war; and, illiteracy contributes to poverty generally, undermines manpower development, and promotes unemployment,” he said.

He said because of what illiteracy does to developing societies, it was necessary for Liberia to make the conscious effort to build a “highly literate society in which entire families must be targeted”.

In order to achieve this level of enlightenment in light of the “very critical role” he said women play in the family and society, the government needed to take additional steps to accelerate the education of women and girls. He said it was only by doing this that the power inherent in women literary would be realized and tapped to the benefit of the nation.

“An educated and literate woman accelerates a family's cohesion and reduces its poverty; a literate women increases the chances for employment by self or by others,” he said.

Besides, he said, a literate woman improves her own or family income generation and management thereby reducing poverty, or creating wealth while adding quality to the life of the family. “An educated woman helps rear good children and good citizens.”

Meanwhile Amb Wesseh has emphasized the need to fight deprivation in the Liberian school system, especially academic fraud, as part of efforts to eradicate poverty, illiteracy, and corruption.

Ambassador Wesseh, who blamed the poor performance in WAEC exams to reported pervasiveness of academic fraud and generally low integrity in the school system, and equated “integrity deficiency” to chronic corruption, has called for the prosecution of individuals found bribing or receiving bribes for grades.

“I believe that it is now time to prosecute academic fraud as a crime. It is time to withdraw degrees granted individuals found to have defrauded an institution. I believe that teachers should be protected from corrupting students. Defrauding students should be strongly subjected to stiff disciplinary measures,” he said.

He did not say how the offenders would be identified in a crime of mutual benefit, but he warned, “Failing to act against these two - the corrupting students and the corrupt teacher - we will be nourishing the seeds of corruption that is so pervasive in society.”

He challenged the authorities of the University of Liberia and other higher institutions of learning in the country to take “take drastic measure to deal with these chronic diseases”.

“The University must help fight mediocrity and be part of a national movement for literacy where we properly educate the whole family, provide literacy lessons to families in need, especially women and girls, our daughters, our mothers and our sisters with the values of integrity. This would prepare our society to be a better place,” he said.

He said if the school system played its part at the time the government of Liberia has made education agreement part of its concessionaire agreements, the nation would be well on the way to defeating illiteracy, mainly women illiteracy.