Cllr. Jargbe Roseline Nagbe-Kowo, former Executive Director of the Public Procurement and
Concession Commission (PPCC), has proposed the integration of Technical and Vocational
Education (TVET) in all high schools in Liberia for the maximum benefit of the country’s
youthful population that needs urgent empowerment and to also boost Liberia’s Economic Development.
Serving as Orator and Guest Speaker for Booker Washington Institute (BWI) 94th Founders Day over the weekend – a very much celebrated event, commemorating the founding of the Booker Washington Institute, in 1929.
Cllr. Kowo elaborated that the BWI is a model that should be replicated in schools across the country to help Liberia robustly tackle her development problems.
She further narrated that the essence of the formation of the institution was to offer training for the youth to contribute to Liberia’s construction and development, adding, “BWI has been operating for many years, and as to my knowledge, has contributed to the growth of many Liberians, in building variant vocational and technical capacities.”
“BWI has contributed immensely to building the expertise of many Liberians over decades and is historically and indisputably the center of technical and vocational education in Liberia,” she said.
According to her, a national educational policy to have technical and vocational education as part of the national education curriculum in all high schools is a constructive strategy for
national growth.
“So, once you graduate from high school, you would already have a skill that can enable you to acquire a source of income, whilst you are going to college,” she intoned.
The former PPCC boss further stated, “This will also ease the financial challenges of high school graduates at the pre-university level.”
She emphasized that vocational education is situated as an important foundation of social and economic development and many countries have made it an economic reform strategy.
Cllr. Kowo indicated that this strategy that some countries, put into place in recent years, was a strategy for Liberia, 94 years ago, and some of these countries have grown economically and infrastructurally, stemming from these strategies that embodied training, capacity and skills building directed at a state development.
She stated that the BWI was formed 94 years ago, with the same national development agenda, long before many of these countries, that we deemed as developed nations today.
The Counselor-at-Law sounded out: “We need to question ourselves. “Where have we gone wrong? How has this nation gone wrong, with this kind of strategic nation-building model, we still have development and skills challenges today.
“Was it because of the Civil War of 1990? Did we have challenges building and expanding this model prior to the war? It has been 61 years between the formation of BWI and the Liberian Civil War, and 18 years from the 2005 democratic transition to the present. There is an adage that says, it’s better late than never. We need to expand the BWI Model to effectively harvest the model’s true purpose, to help State development”.
Cllr. Kowo also stated that Instructional and teachers’ development need to be a mainstay, for continuity in quality education and BWI, a historical institute needs to be upgraded because it has a foundational history of vocational education in Liberia.
She also accentuated that academic stakeholders need to take a renewed interest in
promoting vocational education to address some perceptions that it is a second-class career path. Vocational Education should not be seen that way at all.
“There is a need to have a balance of purely academic secondary education and the needs of society, TVET must be seen as a necessary conduit to self and nation economic growth. She stated her enthusiasm that key stakeholders are currently boosting this path.”
“Vocational education is particularly important for promoting economic development,
expanding employment size, and improving the quality of employment.
The BWI Guest Speaker stated ‘We need to metastasize the BWI model across Liberia in the high schools; Integration of vocational education in school’s curriculum is the roadmap, not short-term programs or courses.
“Our girls and boys need to graduate from High school with honed skills that would help to empower and develop their lives, thus promoting Liberia’s strategic roadmap to help reduce unemployment and stimulate economic drive; yielding high-quality workforce in variant fields and capacities. This Roadmap is strategic for Liberia’s development,” she noted.
The 94th BWI Founders’ Day was graced by many Alumni Members, International guests and well-wishers, and students, all commemorating this historical Day. The Booker T. Washington Agricultural and Industrial Institute was founded in 1929, envisaged by the late Liberian President Charles D. King, and named in honor of Booker T. Washington, African American Economic Rights leader.
