–Cites Inadequate Instructors, Mainly In Southeast
Authorities of Grand Gedeh County University College have called on the Civil Service Agency (CSA) to put a halt to the retirement of public servants in tertiary education, urging President Joseph Nyuma Boakai to kindly instruct the Director of CSA, Josiah F. Jokai, to stop the retirement of lecturers in the wake of the Employee Status Regularization Project (ESRP).
In a release issued recently, the Grand Gedeh University College authorities said “business as usual” remains the same or is getting worse under the Boakai-Koung administration, with a draconian policy that has affected tertiary education, with the laying off of educated professionals in the southeast in the name of implementing the ESRP. “While the ESRP is designed to establish the database of professionals in the public service, from educational perspectives, it is important to halt the retirement of public servants in tertiary education with the on-going validation process mainly to determine professionals with requisite credentials in education,” the authorities of the university observed.
They stated that, instead of the CSA boss, Jokai, reviewing the “Harmonization Policy” instituted by the Weah administration to give lecturers an improved take-home salary, he is bent on indiscriminately ejecting professional lecturers at colleges and universities out of schools in the name of retirement without a conscience that those institutions were created by statutory laws just as the Civil Service Agency (CSA).
“The Grand Gedeh University College, situated in Grand Gedeh County, among others, is a victim of the inimical policy of the CSA’s instructions, disrupting the learning process of students,” the release noted.
“The university college began its first semester of 2024/2025 in June and is about to administer midterm examinations—when the school administration, last week, ejected five lecturers and administrators off the classroom. According to them, the measure is in compliance with the instructions of the CSA Director- General. The students are in disarray and despair about the learning situation in Liberia under the regime of the Unity Party-led government that campaigned under the slogan of ‘rescue mission’, and has enunciated the ARREST agenda. It is believed or implied that education is the cradle of the agenda, because without professional education the agenda cannot be effectively managed and implemented,” the release added.
Recently, the Civil Service Agency (CSA), charged with the statutory responsibility of ensuring a merit-based process of employing Liberian citizens desirous of rendering public services, embarked on the Employee Status Regularization Project (ESRP). The project, according to the CSA Director-General, is intended to census the public sector to knowing the regular and irregular persons on the national payroll. The project began a few weeks ago, but with serious concerns of educational and ethical breach of education principles.
The Grand Gedeh University College authorities pointed out that the CSA boss, without understanding the diversity of institutions he inherited, circulated that all line ministries and agencies should submit listings of personnel who have reached the statutory age of retirement.
However, the university authorities have argued that, particularly, in education, age cannot be a single determinant of retirement, but individual’s willingness and ability to work effectively. They warned that many schools could shut down if the retirement process continues while the ESRP project is on-going, because there are not many professionals in the southeast providing educational services. “Therefore, we are calling on the President of Liberia, His Excellency President Joseph Nyumah Boakai, to kindly instruct Hon. Josiah F. Jokai to immediately halt the retirement process of lecturers in the wake of the validation process, the Employee Status Regularization Project or ESRP,” the release maintained.
