President Joseph N. Boakai Sr. has re-emphasized the need to fight corruption and lead with integrity in order to enhance the educational sector and all other sectors of Liberia. “We will fight corruption in this Country, if you like, you can go on the mountain and cry. We will ensure that we lead with integrity,” President Boakai emphasized. Speaking at the launch of the Ministry of Education “Back to my Classroom” program on August 9, 2024, in Monrovia, President Boakai expressed the need for Liberians to invest in Children’s education, citing that such can’t be possible when corruption and selfishness are the order of the day. “We will ensure that the classrooms are conducive, and we have already launched a program called ‘one child, one seat’. We will make sure that every child gets a seat and school buildings are decent across the country,” the Liberian leader noted. President Boakai emphasized the need for the implementation of a rigorous system to strengthen the educational sector of Liberia. According to him, Liberia has one of the world’s highest school dropouts between 15 -20% ages of 6 to 14. He further named Gbarpolu, Grand Bassa, River Cess, River Gee, Sinoe, Grand Gedeh, and Bomi as the seven counties with the highest number of dropout students, constituting 54 percent. Also, the Liberian leader disclosed that there are schools in the country where the District Education Officer and County Education Officer demand school children to pay their rent. He added that some of those educational stakeholders build substandard schools, which he termed as an act of wickedness, stressing that such an act undermines the security of Liberia. President Boakai pointed out that there are a lot of people sending their children out of the country for better education, noting that Liberians can build their society to serve the people. The Chief Executive of Liberia also called on the parents to stop sending their children to sell in the streets and pay attention in sending them to school because they are future leaders. “We can’t get the best engineers in Liberia without the parents and the government investing in them,” the Liberian Chief Executive said. The launch of the National Enrollment Drive Movement marks a critical juncture in the Ministry’s ongoing efforts to reverse the troubling trend of student dropouts, which currently stands at 20 percent. The National Enrollment Drive Movement aims to bring the figure down to a more sustainable 15 percent, with a strategic focus on increasing enrollment and retention rates across the country. Source: 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐀