President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has blamed the lack of qualified teachers in the school system for the mass failures of students, and threatened to dismiss all unqualified teachers.

“Those teachers who do not measure up will be dismissed,” the President said Monday in her annual address to the nation.

President Sirleaf said a great majority of teachers have a fine job but a lot of them lack university degrees in teaching.

Hence, she directed that new teachers pass performance exams, while all teachers must have majored in subjects they are teaching.

“Next year’s budget will contain new resources to help them reach higher standards.  As we strive to bring excellence to every part of Liberia, we will continue to create the economic incentive for some of the best and brightest of our university graduates to become teachers,” she promised.

She added: “As I noted in my Inaugural Address, we have heard the message of our young people.  We must do our best to provide equal opportunity to them, whether they are in Monrovia or in Picnicess.”

Affirming that over 60 percent of the citizenry are below 35 years, being one of the world’s youngest populations, which makes “this youthful demographic as the country’s greatest risk, the most likely source of instability”.

“As I see it, our youth are the future of our country, and their future is in our hands.  If we invest well and educate them, our future will be bright; if we invest poorly, fail to nurture and develop our young talent, and then our future will look dim.  I believe that over the next six years we can make our young people Liberia’s greatest strength; we can harness the energy, enthusiasm and desire of our children to drive Liberia’s future success.  It is therefore, our youth, not diamonds, gold, oil and iron ore – that will be the driving force behind the nation’s development and economic growth, the President noted.

She promised that government will concentrate   long-term development strategy on the young people, adding: “We have to adequately prepare them for the future.  Today we can say something we couldn’t say six years ago. We have rehabilitated our schools and built several new ones.”

“There are more children, from more diverse backgrounds, in our schools than at any time in our history.  Their education must provide the knowledge and nurture the creativity that will allow our nation to thrive in the new economy.  We have opened the doors of community colleges to our students in rural Liberia” she said.

Notwithstanding, said students continue to underperform on the West African examinations: “Our sixth and ninth graders are below average in math and reading, and our twelfth graders rank near the bottom. Many of our students graduating from high school and college are reading and writing at the junior high or elementary school level.  For these young people to lead us to a more prosperous future, we have to invest more in their basic education.”

“With your support, we will set higher academic standards for public schools and will develop and introduce a voluntary national test similar to WAEC exams to measure the progress of our students.