Liberia: Civics and Service International Urges Partnership for Mass Production of Civics Textbooks

Civics and Service International (CSI) wants to forge a partnership with like-minded Donors/partners in order to massively produce the civics text book that is currently being taught in few junior and senior high schools across the country.

Making a call recently during a brief remark at the Joint Education Sector Review Conference, which was held in Ganta, Nimba, CSI Country Director, Otis S. Bundor, called for a mass production civics textbooks to be placed in libraries and every junior and senior high school across the country. He made specific reference to public schools.

CSI has been working with the Ministry of Education and other partners for the production of the civics textbooks.  

“Now the civics textbooks for secondary schools, LAW+YOU: Rights and Responsibilities of Liberian Citizens, are in the Minister’s Office and what has been one of his challenges is how we can get them printed en masse,” Bundor said.

“We talk about civics, we are going to elections and people are going to be voting, all need to be done to reduce the invalid votes,” he stated, adding that citizens need to be taught more about their rights and responsibilities to the state. 

Bundor disclosed that it would cost a minimum of $300.00 to get a set in a school, that is according to the publisher, Star Longman.

Bundor also wants for civics to be one of the mandatory subjects for students to pass the WASSCE, but this cannot be when the textbooks are not available to students and teachers.  

About the Textbook

The civics textbook that the CSI Country Director is talking about is the “LAW+YOU – Rights and Responsibilities of the Liberian Citizen.” It is being taught in some junior and senior schools.

Civics returned to the classroom this academic year 2022/2023, more than three decades since it was officially taught in Liberian schools. 

The return of this vital subject that is aimed at enlightening Liberian students on their rights, responsibilities, and others was done under the auspices of the Civics and Service International (CSI), formerly Child Steps International.

“Civics is one of the leading fields in building a nation's democracy. According to the LAW+YOU Civic textbook- Rights and Responsibilities of Liberian Citizens,” CSI said.  “Civics is considered as the study of the rights of citizens and their responsibilities to each other and their government. This also entails love for their country and a passion to develop a wholesome functional society.”

Meanwhile, the release of the book was the culmination of more than seven years of work, developing and testing the curriculum, writing the textbook content, piloting the program in schools, as well as training school administrators and teachers in partnership with MOE.

The curriculum was initially developed and piloted. CSI also worked directly with the Ministry of Education to train more than 100 school administrators and teachers.

The civics book, which is tailored at every grade level — from junior to senior high school — was written by 20 accomplished authors, including Americans and Liberians. 

In 2013, CSI conducted an assessment with communities, civil servants, and schools and realized that most Liberians do not understand what it takes to be a citizen- responsibilities and rights. For example, it was common to hear citizens asserting that the country should be sold, and the money distributed among them. 

CSI said the essence of civic education is to provide sustainable constitutional democracy- human rights, conflict prevention and resolution, the role of citizens, vibrant self-esteem, etc.
Liberia as Africa’s oldest independent nation, a country from a brutal civil war with many people still traumatized and school-going kids growing up without knowing their rights and responsibilities, CSI saw the need to write civic textbooks considering Liberia’s cultural context, it said.