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TARTWEH, Sinoe County \u2013 Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL<\/a>) has suspended a program through which it provided mandatory support to schools in its concession area in Sinoe County, crippling academic activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inked between 2013 and 2017, the MoUs were a product of GVL\u2019s 65-year concession agreement<\/a> with Liberia. It granted GVL the right to develop 220,000 hectares of plantations in southeastern and southcentral Liberia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, GVL launched the scheme during the 2020-2021 academic semester in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the GVL Workers\u2019 Union, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and local communities. Then it placed 90 volunteer teachers on GVL\u2019s payroll, providing each a US$100 monthly stipend, compensating for GVL\u2019s inability to build schools in line with its MoUs with communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in March, GVL suspended the program allegedly without any prior notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGVL regrets to officially inform you that the GVL Educational Support (GES) program for the academic year 2023\/2024 has been suspended with immediate effect,\u201d GVL wrote the Tartweh-Drapoh District in a March letter last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Suspension of an employee\u2019s service without prior notice violates Liberia\u2019s Decent Work Act<\/a>. The law requires GVL to have notified the teachers before suspending their contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n GVL claims it informed the teachers before announcing the suspension but provided no proof. Similarly, The DayLight found no evidence of that happening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The suspension undermines the learning environment of the forested coastal county, leaving hundreds of students on their own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe lack of pay for teachers is destroying the learning environment badly. The teachers are not showing the required commitment to teach,\u201d said Armstrong Panteene, principal of Tartweh High School in Tubmanville. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey don\u2019t have their minds set on teaching because they are out there to find food for their families. We no longer have control over them,\u201d Panteene added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last December, The DayLight saw students in Butaw, Tartweh, and Tarjuwon discussing the issue in groups, while others engaged socially. The situation has overwhelmed administrators across the communities, reducing the quality of learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the Butaw High School, where GVL has 95 percent of its employees\u2019 dependents, there are currently 14 teachers from a previous list of 18. The number of teachers at Tarweh High School in Kpayan District, and the Teahjay High School in Tarjuwon, Myerville Township has also declined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt the moment, we don\u2019t have math, physics, and chemistry teachers. This is shameful and embarrassing,\u201d said King Chester Kun, principal of the Butaw High School. \u201cThe school is empty, and students keep asking us about what\u2019s going wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMost times, when classrooms are empty, the school rings the bell, and everyone leaves for home,\u201d said Ralph Carpeh, a 12th<\/sup> grader at Butaw High School. \u201cWe just pack our bags and go home because we are not able to teach ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The suspension is likely to impact enrollment in Sinoe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Between 2015 and 2022, Sinoe recorded a drop in primary school enrollment, according to a 2021-2022 school census<\/a>. Only 13 percent<\/a> of public early childhood students in the county met readiness benchmarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The suspension worsens GVL\u2019s failure to implement agreements it signed with communities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe entrusted our land to GVL with the promise of education, healthcare, and other important benefits. Yet today, Tartweh\u2019s children are left with little to no education, as the company fails to honor its commitments under the MoU,\u201d said Nunu Broh, chairman of the Tartweh-Drapoh Agriculture Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Broken Promises<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The aggrieved instructors, whose voluntary services range from six to 24 months, said the suspension had put them in hardship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In May, volunteer teachers from Kpayan and Butaw districts sued GVL at the Greenville City Court for unpaid wages. GVL partially settled the claims, paying 24 teachers by July, court filings show. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, dozens remain unpaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGVL owes me three months of arrears,\u201d said D. Swen Charles, a former volunteer teacher at Tartweh High School in Tubmanville. \u201cThey told us they would pay, but for now, that story has changed. There is no hope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alphonso Kofi, GVL\u2019s communications director, said the company did not commit any wrongdoing. Kofi claims that GVL is not obligated to continue the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cVolunteer teachers are recruited by the government to help support other teachers in those schools. GVL is only assisting them to compensate those who are not on the government\u2019s payroll,\u201d Kofi said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kofi\u2019s assertions contradict the MoUs between GVL and the communities. The documents obligate GVL to build schools and provide teaching materials in its concession areas free of charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGVL will work with the Ministry of Education as appropriate, to confirm the location for schools, build schools it has agreed to provide, recruit and pay for teachers, maintain schools and provide study items in schools, which it builds or agrees to support,\u201d says GVL\u2019s 2017 MoU with Butaw. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The situation adds to the frail relationship GVL has with locals. In 2018, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) found GVL guilty of land grab. In 2022, the High Carbon Stock Approach, which addresses deforestation in agricultural practices, found that GVL cleared 1,000 hectares of high-carbon forests in the Kpanyan District. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GVL-Plantation-1024x767.jpg\")
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