– Since 1832
Lying between the Atlantic Ocean and the Farmington River, Liberia’s oldest city of Marshall, located in Lower Margibi County has at long last, been blessed with a public high school.
Marshall City according to history, was founded in 1832, thus making the city the oldest in the history of Liberia; but since then, it has been deprived of a senior high school, hence, impeding the educational ability of kids or residents of that part of Liberia over the years.
With the high demand for secondary education, the residents of the city and its surroundings have countlessly called on central government for the establishment of a public high school in the area; a call which has fell on deaf ears for years, apparently due to the lack of political will from past leadership of the county over those years.
With such burning desire by citizens of Marshall City over these years, the current Representative of Margibi County Electoral District One, Tibelrosa Tarponweh, has finally listened to the cries of his people by erecting an annex to the Elementary and Junior High Section of the A.D. Pearson Public School, to be used as the Senior high Section; thus setting the basis for the school if approved by the Ministry of Education, to be established as a fully functional public senior high school for the first time.
Speaking Wednesday, August 29, 2018 during a dedication program of the newly constructed senior high annex, Representative Tarponweh termed the completion of the project as a dream come true for the people of Marshall.
The lawmaker recalled that during his campaign in 2017, the need for a public High school in Marshall City was one of the proposals proffered by the citizenry of that city; hence, the need to have constructed same could not have been more appropriate then now.
According to him, his purpose of joining public service was not to satisfy his personal ambition, but to satisfy the needs of the people for which he represents.
Based on that, Representative Tarponweh promised to prioritize the issues of the district, because his passion is to see the developmental needs of his people fulfilled in line with government’s developmental plans and humanity.
He vowed to ensure that as of the new academic year, the city of Marshall will be proud to have a high school to call their own. Representative Tarponweh maintained that the quality of life of any given area cannot be improved when the people are not educated.
The Margibi County lawmaker indicated that education is the surest way to better the lives and move the people out of poverty. Representative Tarponweh has at the same time disclosed plans to launch a scholarship scheme for under-privileged students within the district on September 1, 2018.
Also speaking, the Assistant Minister of Education for Planning, Research and Development, Dominic Kweme, extolled the lawmaker for his effort in buttressing government’s Pro-poor educational agenda.
“I am grateful that during these planning stages of the government’s Pro-poor agenda, the lawmaker has already started implementing the educational aspect of the administration, something I believed is worth commendation,” Assistant Minister for Education explained.
However, the Assistant Minister for Planning, Research and Development averred that by the construction of the annex, does not suggest that the school is a senior high school, until certain requirements are met and the Ministry of Education finally qualifies the school as a senior secondary school.
Meanwhile, residents and students of Marshall have lauded the efforts of Representative Tarponweh for the gesture and promised to make maximum use of the facility by ensuring that their children attend the institution.
According to them, over the years, it has been a challenge for them as parents to pay for their children tuition and accommodations upon completion of junior high school in Marshall due to the high cost of living in Monrovia; especially for those of them who don’t have relatives in Monrovia to assist them accommodate their children.
The city residents pointed out that with the annexation and subsequent transmission of the school into senior public high school, it will avoid their children from ending up as fishermen and women as well as save them for early marriage and being high school dropouts.
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