Liberia: Enrollment Is Rising, but Are Liberian Students Learning?

Since the end of the civil war, Liberia has made determined efforts to rebuild its education system. Schools have been reopened across the country, classrooms constructed, and thousands of children who once had no access to schooling are now enrolled. These achievements deserve recognition. After years when education nearly collapsed, restoring access was both urgent and necessary, and successive governments should be commended for placing children back in classrooms.

By most visible measures, the system has grown. Enrollment has increased, schools have expanded into rural areas, teachers are being recruited, and learning materials are being distributed. These indicators demonstrate commitment and effort. They show that the education system is larger than it was twenty years ago. But growth in size does not automatically mean growth in learning.

Liberia administers national and regional assessments, including the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), which thousands of graduating students take each year. These examinations generate valuable data about student performance. Yet beyond brief announcements of results, very little systematic information reaches the public.

Typically, citizens hear general statements about pass rates or whether results improved or declined from the previous year. What is rarely shared is a clear picture of performance trends across time, across counties, and across schools.

There is no consistent national reporting that allows Liberians to see whether students today are performing better than those of ten or fifteen years ago. In education, examinations should function like a medical checkup. It is not enough for the doctor to say, "The patient is alive." We need to know the blood pressure, the pulse, and whether the treatment is working. Without that information, improvement becomes guesswork.

Liberia has spent two decades building schools and increasing enrollment, but the country has yet to develop a strong culture of measuring and publicly discussing learning outcomes. Examination data that could guide policy and inform citizens remain largely underused.

An African proverb reminds us that "The child who is carried on the back does not know how far the journey is." For many years, the education system has been carried forward by expansion. New schools, new students, and new programs have moved the system forward. But the distance traveled in terms of learning remains uncertain because it has not been carefully measured or clearly reported.

Parents sense the gap between schooling and learning. Many families have seen children spend years in school yet struggle with basic reading and mathematics. Employers and universities continue to report that graduates often require additional preparation.

These concerns are widely discussed in communities but rarely addressed with national evidence. An education system ultimately succeeds not because children sit in classrooms, but because they leave those classrooms with knowledge and skills. Counting how many children are in school is important, but it is only the beginning. Our elders tell us that "You can't fatten a cow by counting it." In the same way, an education system cannot improve simply by reporting how many students are enrolled or how many schools have been built.

Liberia has reached a stage where the central question should no longer be how many students are enrolled, but how much students are learning. Citizens deserve clear and regular information about educational performance across schools, counties, and the nation as a whole. Policymakers need reliable evidence to guide decisions and target resources effectively.

The emphasis on expanding access after the war was appropriate and necessary. Those efforts laid the foundation for a functioning education system. But quantity without quality creates a fragile structure. A large education system that produces weak learning outcomes cannot meet the needs of a growing nation.

Liberia has opened the school doors. The task now is to ensure that what happens inside those doors prepares young people for the future. Because in the end, a country is not educated simply because its children attend school. A country is educated when its children learn.

About the Author

Dr. Chris Tokpah is the Associate Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness at Delaware County Community College in Pennsylvania, where he leads institutional research, evaluation, and accreditation activities. He is a Coach for Achieving the Dream and a Peer Evaluator for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, providing technical guidance to colleges and participating in accreditation reviews.

Dr. Tokpah holds a Ph.D. in Evaluation and Measurement from Kent State University, an MBA with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Kent State University, and a B.Sc. in Mathematics from the University of Liberia.

He has extensive experience leading research and evaluation projects sponsored by the World Bank, IDA, Geneva Global, USAID, and the African Development Bank. He is a co-owner of the Center for Research, Evaluation, and Policy, a Liberian consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, social science research, and training.

He is also actively involved in development initiatives in Liberia and serves on the boards of nonprofit organizations supporting education and health services. Dr. Tokpah frequently writes on policy issues in Liberia. His writings can be found at https://cenrepliberia.org/volunteer-work, and he can be reached at ctokpah@cenrepliberia.org.

Read the original article on Liberian Observer.

Liberia: Enrollment Is Rising, but Are Liberian Students Learning?

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