As previously reported here, the Liberian government is considering a plan to privatize and outsource control of its schools. The good news is that Liberians are fighting back against this proposal.
“Local and international experts have planned to fight tooth and nails to ensure that a plan by the Government of Liberia to outsource all primary education here to a private company do not push through.
“Liberia’s plan is to privatise all primary and pre-primary schools over the next five years. Public funding will support services subcontracted to a private company – the Bridge International Academies, a company incorporated in the United States under the name New Globe School Inc.
“Already the Liberian Government through Education Minister George Werner has signed a Memorandum of Understanding or MOU with the Bridge International Academies to kick start the process-a pilot project is said to be ongoing with 70 schools.
“The cash scrap government of Liberia is expected to spend around US430 million over the five years period. There is also a question as to whether the PPCC rules were followed in awarding such contract to Bridge International Academies.
“International and local experts say such arrangement is not only a blatant violation of Liberia’s international obligations under the right to education, and have no justification under Liberia’s constitution, but will also deny indigents and poor access to quality education.
Mrs. Hester Williams Katakaw is the Proprietress of the Levi Williams School System and a former deputy education minister for instruction under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s first term. She says education stakeholders here will not allow such arrangement to push through.
“We will resist it and make sure that it does not go through at the National Legislature”, Mrs. Williams Katakaw told this paper Wednesday. She says government has a responsibility to ensure that all children here are educated and that pushing such responsibility on a foreign firm is not in the best interest of Liberian children.
“Mrs. Katakaw questions the performance of Bridge International in other countries saying, “they have failed miserably in other countries and we are not going to allow them to come do the same here”. She says Liberian children at those tender ages should be educated by Liberian teachers and not foreigners.
“Education Minister Werner appears very defensive on this arrangement. In his letter dated March 3, 2016 addressed to the Secretary General of the National Teachers’ Association of Liberia or NTAL, Mr. Samuel Y. Johnson, Sr. following the launched of a pilot project involving 70 schools, he said the pilot project is a private partnership and not privatization.
“…I must correct your characterization of the pilot as privatization, and somehow threatening the provision of free education. As we have communicated to your members including at the January meeting, the pilot will not involve any privatization of education…”
“However, following this communication an agreement was entered into with Bridge International. When this paper contacted officials at the Ministry of Information Wednesday, its Communications Director Maxim Bleteen handed copies of the minister’s letter to the NTAL saying the minister had requested him to give a copy to any reporter seeking information on the privatization deal.
“He claimed that the letter addressed the issue of the Public Procurement Concession Commission rules but nothing of such was mentioned. “It is completely unacceptable for Liberia to outsource its primary education system to a private company”, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Kishore Singh said Tuesday in Geneva.
“This is unprecedented at the scale currently being proposed and violates Liberia’s legal and moral obligations,” he said. “Such arrangements are a blatant violation of Liberia’s international obligations under the right to education, and have no justification under Liberia’s constitution,” the Special Rapporteur stated.
“This also contradicts political commitments made by Liberia and the international community to the fourth UN Sustainable Development Goal which is on education and related targets.” He cautions that public schools and their teachers, and the concept of education as a public good, are under attack with such arrangements.
“Provision of public education of good quality is a core function of the State. Abandoning this to the commercial benefit of a private company constitutes a gross violation of the right to education,” Mr. Singh emphasized.
The human rights expert noted that “it is ironic that Liberia does not have resources to meet its core obligations to provide a free primary education to every child, but it can find huge sums of money to subcontract a private company to do so on its behalf.”
“These sums could be much better spent on improving the existing system of public education and supporting the educational needs of the poor and marginalized,” the Special Rapporteur suggested. Mr. Singh called on the Government of Liberia to approach the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for technical assistance and capacity building, instead of entering into such partnerships with for-profit providers in education, “devoid of any legal or moral justification.”
“Before any partnership is entered into, the Government of Liberia must first put into place legislation and policies on public private partnerships in education, which among other things, protect every child’s right to education,” Mr. Singh said.
“There also needs to be an independent body or institution established to receive complaints of potential violations of the right to education that might result from this development,” he added. The Special Rapporteur emphasized that “education is an essential public service and instead of supporting business in education, governments should increase the money they spend on public educational services to make them better.”
“In a letter addressed to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf dated March 21, 2016, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) called on president Sirleaf to halt the planned outsourcing of primary education here.
“…this policy will seriously undermine the right to educate and eclipse opportunities for indigent and poor individuals, families and communities to use education to claw out of poverty and hardship,” the letter signed by Kwasi Adu -Amankwah, ITUC-Africa General Secretary said .
“The ITUC-Africa (www.ituc-africa.org) is a Pan African trade union organisation representing over 17 million workers in 49 African countries, including Liberia. In its letter ITUC-Africa further stated “ITUC-Africa is supporting and strongly reiterating the calls by the National Teachers’ Association of Liberia (NTAL) and the Educational International (EI) urging your government to halt the proposed measure to outsource Liberia’s primary education system to private for-profit actors.”
“ITUC-Africa therefore urges Madam President to use her good offices and goodwill to stay action on the implementation of this policy,” the union added. The PPCC Director of Communications Nathan Bangu promised to return a call requesting information on as to whether Minister Werner got the PPCC barking before signing an MOU with Bridge International Academies.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Liberians should oppose for profit schools as they are a developing nation. They should not allow their poor citizens to be squeezed by corporations as they have in Asia where people have fallen into debt to pay tuition. Liberia has been able to wipe out Ebola within its borders so they should be ready to resist the techies looking to make more money at the expense of the poor.
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Liberians and Librarians oppose privatization of schools, but Libertarians are all for it.
I wonder if that means something.
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Where public institutions and democratic governments (librarians and Liberians) are weak private corporations are strong (libertarian strong), too big to fail strong. Globalization means that all the currency and dominion in the world grows more and more concentrated in the hands of a small few. Who is really behind it? Who the few? The names Bill and Melinda come to mind. So do the names Bill and… Sorry. I don’t mean to make this political go Bernie.
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When schoolkids learn about imports and exports, I hope they learn about the U.S.’s biggest exports: guns, wars, profiteering, arrogance….
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Do we have enough issues in NYC before taking on the Liberians?
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Lest you doubt it’s all interconnected.
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Even connected out here in the Show Me State’s beautiful Missouri River Hill Country in Southern Warren County.
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What Duane said.
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Yes. What Duane said. 🙂
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Yes. Interrconnected. I have written about Bridge on this blog.
For a current example of market-based thinking about education you might look
at
http://www.educationincrisis.net/blog/item/1308-the-rise-of-the-global-education-industry-some-concepts-facts-and-figures This blog is maintained by a Brussels based organization Education International.
Education International is the voice of teachers and other education employees across the globe. A global federation of about 400 unions in more than 170 countries and territories, it represents 30 million teachers and other employees in education from early childhood to university. Bloggers are well informed and alert to privatization. Posts and topics are at http://worldsofeducation.org/new/en/magazines/articles/323
Here is part of a recent commentary about the Global Education Industry (GEI):
Proponents in favor of increasing the participation of private interests and profit making in education see advantages to the rise of the GEI (education expansion, competition between providers, innovation, etc.). However, there are obvious concerns. To the well-known arguments on market segmentation and educational inequalities resulting from education commodification, several scholars refer also to the challenges triggered by the emergence of the GEI in terms of democracy and accountability.
The shift in authority from the state to private actors might make sense on efficiency grounds, but also entails the undermining of democratic control of public education to some extent. Moreover, the professional autonomy and rights of teachers, as well as the local control of communities over their schools, may be undercut by the shift in authority to private, corporate, and global actors. Similarly, it is reasonable to question whether the shift in accountability structures away from democratic modes to corporate/consumer arrangements reshapes the orientation of education as a public good. That is, corporations are legally accountable primarily to their stockholders and must work first and foremost to create returns for those investors, which are not necessarily aligned with those of the customers, i.e. the students, their families, or their communities.
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This deal doesn’t surprise me because Liberia’s Education Minister is incompetent or lazy or both. The education system is a mess with next to no resources in most schools. I have mildly mixed feelings about this privatization plan because it would actually be an improvement over the public schooling that currently exists. BUT, it is a cop out approach that should not be undertaken by the government. This will only lessen the government’s sense of responsibility for providing a free (halfway decent) education for all its young people.
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Bridge International Academies major financial sponsor is Bill Gates. Proudly displayed on their website.
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Bridge International Academies major financial sponsor is Bill Gates. This is proudly displayed on their website. So now we see England, New Zealand and Liberia attempting to completely privatize education. Education has become a marketplace.
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