“Let the world see what you know”, Deputy Minister Wolokolie urges students

Monrovia, Liberia - Deputy Finance Minister for Fiscal Affairs Hon. Dr. Samora P.Z. Wolokoie has urged graduating students of the Cathedral Catholic High School to seek higher education in order for their future to be better.

Serving as keynote speaker at the school commencement program held on Friday January 15, 2021, Dr. Wolokoie spoke on the topic “The Value of Education in Contemporary Times”, and stated that “Now the time has come, it is your destiny, as you face the troubled world. Let the world see what you know”.

According to Dr. Wolokolie, obtaining quality education is an important first step to having an informed society because it promotes the knowledge, skills, habits, values, or attitudes and understanding of the people in the country, while quality education is also considered as an important pillar on which the foundation of development is built.

“By this I mean education is the means through which we as a nation can recover from our technological deficit and high rate of illiteracy. Quality education helps to mold our minds and transforms us into innovative thinkers and positive contributors to nation building”.

He told the graduating class that a “right kind of education propagates a right kind of behavior and output, and they should choose learning over complacency, schools over night clubs and pubs, and enlightenment over illiteracy”.

Also, he cautioned the students that to succeed in the 21st century and the centuries beyond, one must be skilled and knowledgeable, be fit and competent, must have the abilities and capabilities to deal with the intricacies that are associated with today's happenings.

He furthered that “You cannot depend on chance to make it, to succeed, you must make deliberate efforts, and you certainly cannot just sit idly by and expect miracles to happen, and you cannot cheat your way to success”.

He added that students must work hard, study hard, plan properly, and ensure that the distractions of a fast moving society do not sway you from your path, and should learn to set targets and work toward achieving those targets; adding also their targets should be measurable.

Meanwhile, Dr. Wolokolie has said when students do the right things, and stays committed to their objectives, and chooses education over excessive social engagements, they are well on their way to success.

Education, he says, is an essential tool that can bring about desirable change in a contemporary society. And it is like a lighthouse that gives ‘our’ life a sense of direction and dispels doubts and confusion that surrounds us, stating that is the very reason that the government, while making its policies and programs, gives a priority to education.

He went on to say that education is a powerful tool for personal growth and development, because it enables one to break through the shackles of orthodoxy, and with it people become an asset to their family and to their country.

He challenged the students that “in the wake of limited job opportunities for people graduating from colleges and universities and vocational schools, one may feel reluctant to go to school. I have come today to dispel such thinking. While it is true that there are limited opportunities out there today, it is better to be qualified, able and ready, then to not be qualified, able and ready.

“I challenge you to leave here today ever prepared to seek higher education so that your tomorrow can be better than your today. You are now the new ambassadors of the Cats Kingdom go out into the world and make us proud”.