(Monrovia) – Registration fees and other costs to attend public schools in Liberia are a major barrier to education, forcing many children to delay enrollment, miss school, or drop out altogether, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 75-page report, “‘Without Education, There Will Be Nothing’: School Fees and Other Barriers to Education in Liberia,” documents that mandatory fees...
The Human Rights Watch report presents a compelling case for addressing systemic barriers to education in Liberia, but it also invites deeper scrutiny of the underlying assumptions and potential blind spots in the narrative. The strongest version of this argument—its steelman—is that financial barriers, particularly mandatory school fees, are a direct violation of Liberia’s legal and moral obligations to provide free education. The report effectively highlights the human cost, with testimonies f...