Former Education Minister George Werner has raised alarm over Liberia’s declining school enrollment, warning that the country risks losing its demographic dividend if urgent action is not taken.
In a Facebook post, Werner cited the Ministry of Education’s 2025 enrollment data, which he said paints a grim picture of Liberia’s education pipeline.
The latest Gross Enrollment Ratios show steep declines at every level of schooling.
Early Childhood Education: Enrollment exceeds 120%, with Margibi County reaching 175%—a sign of overcrowding, repetition, and late entry. Primary School: Enrollment falls to 76.8%. Junior High: Drops sharply to 52.6% and Senior High: Collapses further to 38.5%.
The disparities across counties are stark. Senior secondary enrollment stands at just 9.9% in Grand Kru, 8.9% in Gbarpolu, and 7.3% in River Cess, compared with 62.4% in Montserrado.
According to the World Bank’s Human Capital Index (2022), a Liberian child born today will reach only 32% of their productivity potential under current education and health conditions. While a child can expect 4.4 years of schooling, the actual learning outcome is equivalent to just 2.3 years.
“These numbers reveal a painful truth: Liberia is entering its demographic transition with an education system that is leaking children faster than it can teach them,” Werner said. “Most adolescents never make it to senior secondary school. Most will enter the workforce with only primary or lower-secondary education. Without sustained enrollment, Liberia risks a future where its growing working-age population remains under-skilled, under-prepared, and unable to power economic growth.”
Werner stressed that declining fertility alone will not deliver a demographic dividend. “That requires keeping children in school long enough to build the skills the economy needs,” he added.
He further warned that Liberia’s economy must be prepared to absorb its growing youth population. The World Bank’s Liberia Jobs Diagnostic (2021) cautions that without job-rich growth in agriculture value chains, construction, services, tourism, digital work, creative industries, and healthcare, the country cannot convert its workforce into a productive force.
The UNDP echoed these concerns in its 2024 Annual Report, noting that Liberia continues to grapple with “low human capital, high youth unemployment, and severe multidimensional poverty.”
Without jobs, the report warns, a young population becomes a source of instability; with jobs, it becomes a driver of transformation.
