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Posted May 28, 2006
Accommodate Our High School Graduates
“Great
men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment. Therefore
I say: Hearken to me; I also will show my opinion." Job 32:9,10
A few weeks ago, Senator Samuel S. Tormetie,
Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Education, who also once served as
Deputy Minister for Instructions at the Ministry of Education, made a
statement, which calls for not only comments, but also analysis. He said
that the University of Liberia should suspend the administering of entrance
and placement examinations to high school graduates for three years. His
reason? The university is overcrowded.
He also mentioned that the over-crowdedness at the
university means that students are not learning anything at all. Another
idea he propounded is that “what is not done well is not done at all.”
Though this article is mainly about the suspension of
entrance and placement examinations for three years, it seems perfectly
reasonable to me at this point to restate the Senator’s three basic
statements and analyze each, one at a time:
Statement One: What is not done well is not done
at all.
I am not sure whether the Senator realizes that this
statement is both logically and practically untrue. Once, one of my friends
was hospitalized at the St Joseph Catholic Hospital in Monrovia, due to a
serious car accident he had. He could not walk – we thought that he would
have become paralyzed. After staying on his hospital bed for more than two
weeks, the doctor subjected him to some therapeutic exercise, after which he
was put on a “walking trial.” On the first and second trials, he found it
very difficult to walk. The third and fourth trials were also difficult.
However, on the fourth trial he walked from one end of the room to the
other, though the walking was not like how he normally walked before the
accident – but he walked. Would the Senator argue that because this person
did not walk well, it meant that he did not walk at all?
Another example: I don’t drive well, but, last month, I
drove from Nowy Sacz to Krakow (in Poland), a distance of 110km, without
causing an accident or being helped by anyone. I admit that I didn’t do it
well. In spite of my not doing it well, I covered the 110-km distance. Wait
a minute! Would the Senator argue that I did not drive at all? Of course,
not! This is the practical error in the Senator’s statement!
In terms of logic, the Senator also erred. His
reasoning is an example of a logical fallacy called bifurcation – reasoning
from the “either-or” or the “black-or-white” stand point. “You either
learn/do it well, or we’ll conclude that you didn’t learn/do it at all.”
What kind of logic is this? A person might not have done something well, but
he might have done it do some extent; he might not have learned something
well, but he might still have learned something from there. It is incorrect
to conclude that because a person didn’t do something well, it means that
that he didn’t do it at all. This is the logical error in the Senator’s
statement.
Statement Two: The over-crowdedness at the
university means that the students are not learning anything at all.
Again, nothing could be far from the truth. I don’t
understand why the Senator would be so brave to make such an unfounded
statement. Some of the finest individuals that the university has ever
produced are also individuals who went through the “overcrowded” university.
For example, comrades Max Willie, Joe Mason, Trokon Washington, Michael
Diggs, Isaac Wuor, Sampson Chea, Samuel Tweh, Trokon Tarr, Reagan Scott,
Zotawon Titus, Adolphus Taylor, Philip Wesseh, and hundreds, if not
thousands, others attended and graduated from the university during this
“overcrowded” period. Is Senator Tormetie saying that all these people did
not learn anything at all? I will not go further.
Again, the Senator has committed a series of logical
fallacies – sweeping generalization, converting a conditional, missing the
point, etc. – just in this second statement.
Statement Three: The university should suspend
entrance and placement examinations because the school is overcrowded.
Does the Senator have a good intention for suggesting
the suspension of entrance and placement examinations for three years? Ah, I
am not here to judge his intentions. My job, however, is to analyze his
statement and its possible implications on the status quo.
I strongly believe that Senator Tormetie’s statement is
unfortunate, impractical and unpragmatic. Suspending the administering of
entrance and placement examinations because of over-crowdedness is putting
the cart before the horse. It’s also picking an inappropriate solution for a
deeply rooted and multi-faceted problem.
The fourteen-year war has had adverse effects on every
sector of the country. According to statistics, unemployment rate is more
than 75% and illiteracy rate is around 80%. This is precisely why there are
calls for the country to focus on it’s manpower development. In the midst of
high unemployment and illiteracy rates, coupled with the need to change the
situation around, most high school graduates turn to the University of
Liberia – the only state university – to get their college education.
Every year, thousands of students graduate from high
school, with the intention to enter the university. If the number of high
school students that sits the National Examinations is considered, no one,
not even the President of Liberia, would want to talk about suspending
entrance examination for three years. For example, about 10, 500 senior high
school students took the examinations in 2003, more than 11,000 took it in
2004, more than 13, 000 took it in 2005 and about 15, 000 took it this year.
If, based on the information given supra, we just
assume that the number increases by 1,000 students every year, and assuming
that the university will suspend entrance and placement examinations for
three years, excluding 2006, then the following arrangements hold true: 15,
000 students in 2006, 16,000 students in 2007, 17, 000 students in 2008 and
18, 000 in 2009. This gives a total of 66,000 students that will have sat
the National Examinations by 2009 – 16, 500 per year. If we further assume
that about 60% of those who take the examinations pass, then, on the
overage, it means that about 9,900 students will graduate from high school
each year between 2006 and 2009, inclusively.
Still, if we assume further that about 40% of those who
graduate from high school decide to enter the University of Liberia, then
the number is 3, 960 students per year, giving a total of about 16, 000
students by 2009.
A few days ago, I talked with Dean Johnson, the Dean of
Admissions at the University of Liberia, and he told me that more than 7,000
high school graduates took the last entrance examinations, but only about 3,
000 were admitted. Thousands others had taken the previous one, but only
about 4, 00 students were accepted.
I wonder the Senator took into account the fate of the
thousands of students that complete high school each year. I am still
pondering over whether he thought about what activities these students could
possibly be involved in during the three-year period of no-going-to-college
policy, coupled with the high unemployment.
If UNMIL Force Commander Gen. C. Isaac Obiakor’s
statement – unemployment breeds crimes (The Analysis, 1 June 2006) – is
anything to go by, then there is a need to be concerned about the Senator’s
statement. Moreover, if the saying, “An idle mind is the Devil’s workshop,”
is true, then some of these children could get involved in some unwholesome
activities, which could be detrimental, not only to them, but also to the
society as a whole. I wonder the Senator considered the fact that these
students could become disgruntled and resort to violent demonstrations
nationwide.
It’s unfortunate that Senator Tormetie proposed the
suspension without proposing an alternative program to help the students,
except that he said that high school graduates should be patient. These
students, using Liberian parlance, may even ask the Senator, “Da patien we
will eat?”
But, wait a minute! Why should the students be the ones
to pay for government’s negligence and a situation worsened and complicated
by fourteen years of war? Why?
I thought the Senator would use his experience, contact
and position to propose and implement programs that would give the students
opportunity and hope in both the short and long run, instead, he is asking
them not to think about college education for three years. I wonder he
thought that the statement would make him a hero.
Whose interest does the Senator think he is seeking by
his statement? Not the students, of course, as they are hungry for education
and want to make up quickly for the years that the locusts have eaten. Most
of them are already older than the classes they are in.
The Senator cannot even be seeking the interest of the
university at this time, as it greatly depends on fees collected from
entrance examinations to carried out some of its major programs and
activities, as past governments, especially in recent past, did everything
to ignore the university’s importance in progress and development and
manpower development – they refused to support the university fully.
I am not sure whether the university authority will
even listen to the Senator’s suggestion/statement, or not. They may
administer entrance and placement examinations before the end of 2006. This
brings in huge revenue for the university. If the university registers about
7, 000 students for the next entrance at the rate of LD500.00, as it charged
in 2004, it will amount to LD3, 500, 000.00 (about US$64, 000, using LD55 as
the exchange rate).
To help the students, whose future has been delayed as
a result of the war and it’s aftereffects, here are some heroic moves the
Senator could make:
- The Senator could devise and help implement policies
and programs that will enable the university to operate on a trimester,
instead of a semester, basis. This would ensure the proper student
turnover, thereby giving enough space to new comers.
- He could use his influence and position to help the
university build new structures, so as to accommodate the thousands of
students who complete high school yearly and decide to attend the
university.
- He could suggest reduction in the number of offices
on the campus, by transforming them to classrooms, if possible.
- He could use his influence and position in
government to see to it that additional state universities, like the
University of Liberia, are built in the country.
I learned long time ago that it is difficult to know
what to prioritize, and it is even more difficult to know when and how to
prioritize. Let the University continue to administer entrance and placement
examinations – accommodate our high school graduates. 
About the author:
Paul Yeenie Harry is a Liberia living in Poland,
Europe. He can be reached at pyharry@yahoo.com
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