About Liberia

Education in Liberia

The Liberian education system has been severely affected by the years of civil war. Many schools, colleges and other training institutions were closed down, and the few remaining ones were operating on an ad hoc basis. Qualified teachers were either killed in the conflict or left the country, which seriously affected the human infrastructure of the education sector. School buildings were looted and destroyed as were teaching materials and libraries. This led to an almost complete collapse of the education system in the country. As a consequence, large shares of the young population of Liberia have not enjoyed formal education.Therefore, in Liberia there is today a large number of over-aged students. Some of the older students feel too ashamed to sit in classes with younger students and therefore chose to work in the informal sector. Other children have themselves fought in the war as child soldiers. As education is a key building block for sustainable human development, this has affected Liberia’s whole society. Illiteracy rates are estimated at 50-60%.

Many children and youth do not have access to quality education services. Often public schools are over-crowded and not properly managed due to a lack of resources. Especially in the big cities, such as Monrovia, there are large numbers of street children who have lost their parents or left their homes. They try to support themselves through petty trade, or even prostitution and petty crime.