As we all have been home and observing social distancing and all the safety measures to keeping safe and alive, I hope it has also given us an opportunity to think deeply and reflect on other major issues in our society that haven’t been given needed attention. I feel these kinds of reflections are important, because this pandemic will pass soon enough and we shall return to what I call, the other illnesses of society. Cognizant of the fact that our educational system needs more improvement, there are certain discussions that need to be held in order to help the system be on par with global educational systems.
Let us all agree that the Government plays a key role in reforming the Liberian educational system, along with other stakeholders -some of which include school authorities. There are many things institutions can put in place to supplement the Government’s efforts in providing standardized education and grooming well prepared students who are ready for the job market.
One major discussion we somehow have neglected to have or perhaps have not recognized as a problem, especially for senior students at universities who have “met the requirements to graduate,” is whether they have actually met all requirements to graduate. In universities across Liberia and the world, the last thing that qualifies a student for graduation is their ability to write and present your research paper before a panel so as to convince them that your research is founded in facts and reasonable inferences/conclusions.
The question now becomes: are students really convincing these panelists based on what they wrote or what they say they’ve written? I graduated from the African Methodist Episcopal University (AMEU) in June 2019, and during my last semesters as a student, I was told to write a “Research Paper”. I, and every other senior student, were to come up with a vibrant topic and a “CASE STUDY” to back our findings in the papers. Like other veterans who’ve walked through those same walls, my colleagues and I embarked on this joining of writing. Some wrote independently while others hired people to write for them. Because I had worked for years in the area of Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) and have had sufficient knowledge to enable my research paper, I decided to develop a topic around the subject matter, “Investigating SGBV; Successes, Challenges, and Prospects – A Case Study in Swakocco, Bong County.”
The instructors then told us how to write the Research Paper. We were to write a 50-page paper consisting of five (5) chapters, giving analyses of the topic being addressed. We were to gather information on the topic from a larger scale, including evidence from other countries. Articles, research papers, and surveys that have national statistics or information on the topic were to be cited. However, the school authorities do not pay attention to the students’ progress during the compilation of the research paper. The first and only time a case study is mentioned is at the research interview when the student is told to make a list of “research questionnaires’ for a handful of random people to fill out. No substantial information is gathered prior to actually writing the paper or during the course of the “research.”
A group of young people and I have thought to stay connected and engaged as we stay home and safe. We’ve been having insightful discussions, and one of our discussion points recently was “Guidelines to Writing Comprehensive Research Papers.” This question then popped up “Why allow someone to write a paper that covers the entire country throughout the paper and come back to a small position “CASE STUDY” where to ask a small number of people to represent a paper that reflects the entire country. And the funny thing you find out those questionnaires come out with findings and the findings don’t represent the paper in totality.
On the flip side; in other parts of the world, thesis or research paper defense takes hours, because you’ve got to convince the panelist beyond reasonable doubts that your evidence is substantial and accurate. In Liberia, you are asked to write a 50-60 pages paper but at the point of defense you get to explain (not defend) the abstract of the paper. Means to me you can write whatever and the possibilities of panelists not capturing them because they got to deal with you quickly and bring in the next person.
I believe these are questions we need to start rising, discussions we should be holding. When a person graduates from college in Liberia, it’s a very big deal and the prospects there are that the person has learned sufficiently and is ready to make money. I believe. if universities should put students out, they will be taught the right way to the and given the right resources for their future endeavors.
Authored by Aaron Ireland
Featured Picture by Unsplash
Wow, this is really sad. Thank you for shining light on this issue.