The University of Liberia. Number of applicants this year: nearly 25,000. Number gaining admission: zero.
MONROVIA, Liberia - The "epic fail" of every single candidate in the admission exam
provoked bafflement, consternation and heated debate on Tuesday, with some
convinced that flaws in Liberia's education system had
been brutally exposed. A government minister likened it to "mass
murder".
At first it appeared there would no freshers at west Africa's oldest degree-granting
institution when the new academic year gets 
under way next month. But then an
intervention by president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf forced the university to back
down and give places to a lucky 1,800.
under way next month. But then an
intervention by president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf forced the university to back
down and give places to a lucky 1,800.
According to university officials, the applicants lacked enthusiasm and did
not have a basic grasp of English. Spokesman Momodu Getaweh told the BBC's
Focus on Africa programme that the university stood by its decision
and would not be swayed by emotion. "In English, the mechanics of the
language, they didn't know anything about it. So the government has to do
something."
Liberia was devastated by a bloody
civil war in the 1990s and the rule of president Charles Taylor, but
Getaweh said the country was running out of excuses. "The war has ended 10
years ago now. We have to put that behind us and become realistic."
The current president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, recently admitted that the
education system was "in a mess" and in need of reform. But this is
the first time that all students who took the exam, which entails payment of a
$25 (£16) fee, failed.
- The Voice of America (VOA) reported that the university hired a private consultant to manage and administer this year's entrance exam.
- The consultant, James Dorbor Jallah, told the VOA: "There is a perception in our society largely that once you take the University of Liberia admission exam, if you do not pay money to someone, or if you do not have appropriate connections, you would not be placed on the results list. So, the university has been grappling with how they could manage the process whereby people's abilities would be truly measured on the basis of their performance in the examination."
- Liberia could draw a lesson from the mass failure, he added. "For the country as a whole, I think this is a clarion call that we need to all see that the king is moving around naked and not pretend as though the emperor has his finest clothes on."
Earlier, Etmonia David-Tarpeh (photo), the national education minister, expressed
doubts over the dismal showing.
"I know there are a lot of weaknesses in
the schools but for a whole group of people to take exams and every single one
of them to fail, I have my doubts about that," she told the BBC.
"It's like mass murder."
David-Tarpeh said she knew some of the applicants and the schools they went
to.
The University of Liberia was established in 1862 as Liberia College and
became a university in 1951.
Source: The Guardian
Source: The Guardian
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