{"id":9720,"date":"2013-08-27T13:08:10","date_gmt":"2013-08-27T13:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=9720"},"modified":"2013-08-27T13:08:10","modified_gmt":"2013-08-27T13:08:10","slug":"epic-fail-all-25-000-liberian-students-fail-university-entrance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=9720","title":{"rendered":"Epic fail: All 25 000 Liberian students fail university entrance"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"body \">\n<figure id=\"attachment_9721\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9721\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/epicfail.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9721\" alt=\"Studying the mechanics of English\" src=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/epicfail-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/epicfail-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/epicfail.jpg 460w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9721\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Studying the mechanics of English<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Not one of the nearly 25,000 students applying for one of Africa\u2019s two state-run universities has passed the entrance exam, to the surprise of the country&#8217;s education minister. So the <span class=\"storyTop \">University of Liberia faces a new term with no first years turning up to class.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Etmonia David-Tarpeh, who described the widespread failure as \u201clike mass murder\u201d, plans to meet with university officials after school-leavers paid a fee of $25 each to take the test, only to see their dreams dashed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Speaking to the BBC Focus on Africa programme, she said: \u201cI 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. I\u2019d really like to see the results of the students.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A bloody civil war that ended a decade ago has left the education system in tatters, with many schools deprived of the simplest education resources and in dire need of qualified teachers. But a lack of enthusiasm and a basic grasp of English are behind the latest shocking statistic, a university spokesperson has said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Defending the university\u2019s decision, spokesman Momodu Getaweh confirmed that it would not be changing its stance, arguing that the government must put the war behind them and act fast on students\u2019 complete ignorance of the \u201cmechanics\u201d of English.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not one of the nearly 25,000 students applying for one of Africa\u2019s two state-run universities has passed the entrance exam, to the surprise of the country&#8217;s education minister. So the University of Liberia faces a new term with no first years turning up to class. Etmonia David-Tarpeh, who described the widespread failure as \u201clike mass &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=9720\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Epic fail: All 25 000 Liberian students fail university entrance&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,123],"tags":[5592,1410,5591],"class_list":["post-9720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world","tag-bad-english","tag-liberia","tag-university-entrance-exam"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/epicfail.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9722,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9720\/revisions\/9722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}