—Calls on Government to Eliminate Registration Fees, Expand School Grants, and Rescue Liberia’s Struggling Education System
Monrovia: — Mandatory registration fees and associated costs at public schools across Liberia remain a critical barrier to education, forcing thousands of children to delay enrollment, miss classes, or drop out entirely. This is according to a comprehensive, 75-page report released today by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
The report, titled “‘Without Education, There Will Be Nothing’: School Fees and Other Barriers to Education in Liberia,” documents how mandatory fees place a crushing financial burden on families. HRW emphasizes that these fees directly violate children’s right to education, despite Liberia’s legal guarantees of free and compulsory education for grades 1 through 9.
“The Liberian government has made important commitments to free and compulsory education, but school fees continue to keep children out of the classroom,” said Jo Becker, Children’s Rights Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch. “Removing these fees would be a crucial step to expand access to education and improve children’s futures.”
Grim Statistics: Liberia’s Education Crisis by the Numbers
The report highlights that Liberia currently has one of the highest out-of-school rates globally, underscoring the severe scale of systemic exclusion.
According to the report, about 33% of all school-age children (ages 3 to 17) have never attended school, while, 50% of children living in rural parts of Liberia have never stepped into a classroom.
The report further states that 38% of children manage to complete grade 6 with only 17% of children successfully complete grade 9.
4.2 Years: The average amount of schooling a Liberian child entering school at age 4 will complete by the time they turn 18, HRW said.
Delayed Entry and Daily Exclusion
Between November 2025 and January 2026, HRW researchers visited 21 schools and interviewed 118 parents, teachers, and school administrators across Montserrado, Margibi, Nimba, Bong, and Grand Bassa counties. Local child advocates also conducted peer-to-peer interviews with 61 children and youth.
The investigation found that financial barriers force children to enter the school system years late. At the early childhood level (ages 3 to 5), 43 percent of children are at least three years over-age. By secondary school, more than 60 percent of students are four or more years older than the official age for their grade.
A 14-year-old boy interviewed for the report explained his reality:
”Right now, I’m not in school because my parents can’t afford to send me. I left school to help my mother sell goods in the market. I really want to go back.”
With nearly half of the Liberian population living below the poverty line, parents reported taking on heavy debt, skipping meals, and making extreme sacrifices just to cover public school registration fees.
Overcrowded Classrooms and Overreliance on Unpaid Volunteers
Beyond financial barriers, HRW highlighted severe deficits in education quality. The report points out that classrooms holding 80 to 100 students are common, infrastructure is inadequate, and teacher salaries remain low.
Alarmingly, public schools rely heavily on a volunteer teaching workforce. Many of these volunteer teachers have remained completely unpaid for years, working only in the hope of eventually securing a formal, paid government slot.
The Funding Deficit
Liberia’s education sector continues to suffer from the compounding, long-term shocks of past civil wars, the Ebola epidemic, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Public investment remains critically low. The 2026 national education budget accounts for approximately 11% of national spending (2.73% of GDP). This sits significantly below the 4% GDP average for Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) members, and misses the international benchmark of 4% to 6% of GDP.
A Pathway Forward: The EXCEL Project
The report acknowledges that the government is currently engaged in a US$88.7 million reform initiative known as the Excellence in Learning in Liberia (EXCEL) project. Financed by a US$60 million World Bank loan and a US$28.7 million grant from the Global Partnership for Education, the project includes US$18.5 million specifically earmarked for school grants aimed at reducing or eliminating fees.
HRW estimates that completely replacing registration fees with direct school grants for all public schools—from early childhood through senior secondary—would require an increase of roughly 4 percent to the current education budget, making the reform highly feasible.
Human Rights Watch recommends the immediate elimination of registration fees at all public primary and junior secondary schools, with a rapid phased rollout for early childhood and senior secondary levels.
The advocacy group also wants EXCEL school grants fully scaled up, sustained, and properly distributed to prevent local schools from charging auxiliary fees while also increasing the overall education funding to align with international and ECOWAS benchmarks.
HRW further urged the prioritizing the transition of qualified volunteer teachers onto the formal, paid government payroll, and fast-track the rehabilitation of classrooms and sanitation facilities in underserved rural counties.
”Liberia has a clear opportunity to build on existing reforms and remove the financial barriers that keep so many children out of school,” Becker concluded. “Ensuring free, quality public education is one of the most effective investments the country can make.”
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