Education International is an organization of teachers’ unions. It just released the following statement about the American-created girls’ school in Liberia that was the subject of an investigation by ProPublica. Its report alleged that the co-Director of the school raped many of the children, then died of AIDS. Crimes were committed against children. No do-overs.
The following statement has been endorsed unanimously by the Executive Board of Education International at its meeting today, 16 October, in Brussels in response to the crimes against children documented in the PROPUBLICA story – UNPROTECTED
Education International is shocked and appalled by recent reports documenting horrific crimes perpetrated against children in Liberia, in the care of a charity operated school, More Than Me.
Crimes committed and, it appears, ignored, itself constituting a crime, by those meant to be looking after and guaranteeing the well-being of children.
Governments compel children to attend school. That brings with it an obligation to ensure their safety.
The horrific events exposed last week serve as a lesson about what can happen when a government outsources education to unqualified, unaccountable individuals.
Given these horrific incidents, More Than Me’s contract should be immediately terminated and a thorough investigation instigated.
The Liberian government must take over administration of all of its schools and resume its duty of care to children and their educational well-being. Governments must be the guarantors and providers of education systems.
Let those found guilty of having breached their duty of care have the full weight of the law fall upon them.
Angelo Gavrielatos
Project Director – EI
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The key phrase: “Governments must be the guarantors and providers of education systems.”
That isn’t happening in the publicly funded, private sector charter school industry in the United States. The government guarantee to protect children is absent in those schools.
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You beat me to it.
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I shudder to think what lies ahead in publically-funded little mom&pop voucher shops, where uninformed consumer choice is the “monitor.”
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I suspect that those parents are only looking for way to get their kids, who don’t want to be in school and don’t want to make the effort to learn, out of the house.
That is unless they are a Besty DeVos type of parent that wants to have the public pay for a religious school that will program their kids to grow up and join the forever-Trump crowd.
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The politicians and big $$$$$ are really not about much of anything except their on shore and off shore bank accounts.
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I recommend reading the following account of the charity. It reveals who funded it, who praised the founder, and more.
The effort to recruit and “scale up” was a big part of the problem, including oversight of who was hired. One shameful part was this: The school was not the only “service” and reports of the rapes were not made because the parents did not want to lose other benefits including food.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45869800
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Thank you for this information. The donors are guilty as well. I’m beside myself with anger this Saturday morning and passed along the ProPublica piece to my church group and friends outside of church.
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This is huge flaw in privatization. The operators are amateurs. They do not understand the how to keep young people safe, They may not vet employees. In this case a sociopath was hired. They may put young people in unsafe buildings or circumstances. Public schools have rules and laws protecting young people. Perhaps not so many regulations in Liberia, but they must have some level of security to protect young people.
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I know I sound like a broken record, but this is only a flaw if you think that keeping kids safe is an essential function of schools.
If, however, you think the essential function of schools is to transfer public money into private hands for maximal profit, then the system is working very well indeed.
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The level of sexual violence in Liberian schools is extremely high.
The Liberian Ministry of Education Sector Plan for 2017-2021 states that “Sexual gender-based violence (SGBV) is thought to be widespread in schools. In one study, one in five students – both girls and boys – report experiencing SGBV from teachers or staff” and that “Sex for grades’ (the rape of students by teachers engaging in transactional sex or threatening students with failure) is probably commonplace.”
The plan is interesting reading for anyone interested in the state of education in Liberia. It can be found here: https://www.globalpartnership.org/content/getting-best-education-sector-plan-2017-2021-liberia
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