Photo Credit: Refugees Internaitonal
08/27/2007

Primary schooling is supposed to be free in Liberia, but the RI team was consistently told by parents that they have to pay school fees. 50% of Liberian children are not in school. There is also a serious lack of trained teachers in Liberia and only 25% of teachers are certified.

In Tobogissizu village there are two schools: a government school and a private Pentecostal mission school. The government school costs 500 Liberian dollars, approximately eight US dollars per year per child. The mission school costs 600 Liberian dollars per year per child. For many families, this is unaffordable, so they keep their children out of school.

The World Food Program (WFP) currently provides an Emergency School Feeding (ESF) Program. To address the problems of gender inequality in school attendance and encourage families to send their daughters to school, the ESF program currently provides a take-home ration for girls attending school. This program will be cut if WFP does not secure more funds for its 2007 appeal.