The Executive Coordinator of the Paramount Young Women Initiative (PAYOWI) and 2022 International Women of Courage award winner, Atty. Facia Harris, says education is a tool of poverty reduction of any nation in the world.
Atty. Harris made the disclosure at the Crest Foundation School closing program over the weekend when she served as guest speaker.
The Paramount Young Women Initiative Executive Coordinator spoke on Theme: Playing Our Part the Right Way linking education to poverty reduction and how poverty affects 54 percent of the population adding that poverty levels in rural areas is 71.7 percent, according to Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo Information Ser vices ( LISGIS).
When the heads of households have no education, the poverty level in the household is usually high, she emphasized that according to LISGIS, 30 percent of women have no education at all, compared to 13 percent of men noting, “This means more women are poorer,”
She indicated that educational opportunities should be for all because “We often hear, there is only one way to do the right thing, and that’s the right way but getting it right from the start is important in doing the right thing.”
She informed the gathering that a country where 48% of its people are literate, according to UNICEF, and drug abuse such as KUSH is highly consumed, especially by youth, is failing to do ‘The Right Thing The Right Way.’
“A Country where 54 percent of women are literate compared to 77 percent of men. And a country where 80 percent of the population is in vulnerable and/or informal employment, according to the Ministry of Education, is not equally serving all,” she stressed.
The guest speaker wondered, “Also, a country where fathers have abandoned their responsibility to their children, causing many to become school dropouts and in high debts of school fees to the school is not doing the right thing. Have we asked ourselves why these problems persist? The two major ways to tackle this problem are to increase educational opportunities for all and to make sure the education institutions get the necessary funding and functional.”
Atty. Harris revealed that education is one of the fundamental human rights for everyone. Yet, there is a huge educational disparity in Liberia, primarily impacting girls and women that continue to leave the country with significant demographic and development challenges.
She disclosed that the gap of 54 percent of literate women compared to 77 percent of men which I earlier quoted should be closed through intentional actions of investing in girls’ education by this school, the Government, and people of goodwill. Lack of educational opportunities is linked to poverty and poverty also has strong gendered impacts which contribute to keeping girls out of school.
PAYOWI Executive Coordinator maintained that the quality of education we will give is reflected in the conduct of students in and outside the classroom noting “Our society is becoming too uncivilized and too violent. There have been many incidents of pre-election violence.”
She recalled the recent one that took place during Cllr. Tiawon Gongloe anti-corruption peaceful protest when some youths believed to be from the ruling party disrupted their gathering and Cllr. Gongloe and his vice running mate had to escape for their lives recalling, “We all fear that election violence could be high and disrupt our peace. May this never happen. May it not be said that students of this school and other schools are involved in elections violence. If there is chaos in this country, there will be no school.” Atty. Harris told the students and those in attendance that in a democratic country, like Liberia, under the principle of responsibility, public officials have an official duty before the citizens to report their decisions and actions. Thus, the principle of transparency requires that administrative actions should be either opened for public review or accessible to citizens adding, “That is the right thing to do, and it must be done the right way.”
