My name is Tukus Ama Harris a Liberian residing in Monrovia Liberia. As the last child of parents
who were both teachers it has come as no surprise to me that I have been bitten by the education
bug.
My early childhood memories are filled with time spent roaming the halls of every school my mother
Rosetta Benson Harris former principal of William V.S Tubman High ever taught at. She insisted that
unlike my older siblings I did not return home after school, but spent my days with her at work, most
times under her desk with various Math, English or Spelling exercises handed down to me to be
done.
I loved and adored my mother, hence whatever she did was good in my sight and I obediently did my
work as long as they came with a bite of one of my favorite snacks. My mother was an exceptional
educator, she was passionate and went beyond just being a teacher to her students but more of a
mentor, role model and guardian. Born to an uneducated mother in the burroughs of New Kru Town
she saw herself in many of her students and made it her personal mission to ensure that they
received the not only the education but the guidance needed to be successful.
How else could I honor such a person after her passing then by establishing a school in her honor, in
the very home that she grew up in, with students learning on the very soil and in the rooms that she
slept in. I founded the Rosetta Steps Education Foundation in the year 2016 with the intent of
providing reading lessons on weekends. Our first Saturday we had only 12 students in attendance,
but all it took was for student Jackson Carr to stand at the door of the school with his piece of
chicken in his hand and wave it at his friends playing in the dirt outside and say in Liberian parlance “
you see my chicken I eating” for us to be flooded the next weekend. Today we have evolved into a
school offering classes from Nursery to the 7 TH Grade with over 250 students in attendance.
With no formal training in education but just an innate ability and talent, probably inherited ,to be
able to communicate and break down learning material in a way that it is comprehended, I lead and
manage a team of 20 teachers all recruited from within our community. Our mission is simple ,
provide quality education in low income areas at the cost of less than a dollar a day. Currently at
0.79 cents we are proud to say we are doing just that.
I am of the belief that the panacea to most of Liberias social ills is more investment in education. The
more educated an individual is the smarter the life choices they make in health, conflict resolution
and the higher they are able to earn.
The challenges in the Liberian education sector are numerous, 70 percent of the parents of our
students have received no formal education resting the burden to educate the child squarely on the
shoulders of the teachers.
In spite of all this I remain confident and hopeful. The future of Liberia is bright !!!!
hows that there is a link between education and Gross Domestic Product GDP. The fact that
countries with the highest GDP worldwide are countries
A huge task but then what is life if we don’t face and overcome challenges.