Impact of Liberia’s Free and Compulsory Primary Education

Local school administrators are becoming increasingly worried about the fate of Liberia’s Free and Compulsory Primary Education Policy. The Free and Compulsory Primary Education Policy was instituted by the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Government as a means of achieving progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG 2) which calls for universal Primary Education for all children by 2015. Certainly, the policy is achieving its primary objective which is increased enrollment; for the past three years school enrollment, especially at the primary level, has increased by 50%. Parents also seem to be appreciating the policy since it has reduced the burden of paying school fees; families of low income status can now use their meager resources for uniforms and note books. However, a challenging and troubling indication is the question of quality delivery; this includes adequate physical space for learning to accommodate the growing number of enrolled students and adequately trained instructors who are available to teach on a regular basis. Additionally, school administrators think that parents do not have adequate information on the policy and the actual role they need to play for the overall achievement of the policy goal; the word “Free” has created a stubborn mind in parents to make any efforts with school administrators in addressing these challenges.

The capacity of the government remains limited in providing more buildings and trained instructors. According to local school administrators, government regulations allow for 35 students and 45 students per class for primary and secondary schools respectively, a policy that was supposed to be enforced this year. However, last year’s school statistics showed 75-80 students per class, a number that is expected to increase this year. Furthermore, the capacity of the government to maintain the requisite trained teachers in school remains a dilemma; volunteer teachers who have been trained and deployed to needed campuses are not on salary, and their stipend is irregular. Teachers who have replaced others due to death, resignation or termination have become frustrated by the prolonged delay of regularizing their status as they have to continue to take pay on the name of the person(s) they replaced. This causes intermittent disruptions in classes when the teachers affected strike or abruptly abandon their job.

The following recommendations were made:

1. The “Free and compulsory Primary Education Policy” needs to be comprehensive to respond to the need in quality delivery, and to include opportunities for community partnership in various participatory means in meeting the medium term needs while the government prepares for the longer term challenges. Government needs to include private schools into the program by providing subsidies which will allow x% off school fees for community children in close proximity to these schools who do not have the needed resources to enroll at such schools; this will also help with the issue of quality delivery.

1. Adequate awareness campaigns need to be conducted involving all stakeholders including Parent-Teacher Associations, local school administrators and communities on how the policy works; the word “Free,” must be well defined/interpreted to include practical implication for the goal of the policy.

1. Information on funds allocated to the county in the national budget for education purposes must be accessible by respective Parent-Teacher Associations and local school administrators, who by being aware of the budget capacity will be convinced of the need to contribute to extra resources.

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