Why Girls in Liberia Need to Stay at School

By Kate Thomas: guardian.co.uk

15-year-old Miranda lowers her eyes every time she passes the village school. "I dropped out three years ago" the former child soldier says with a sigh. "I would have liked to have become a doctor but school was too expensive. Now I sell doughnuts on the street instead."

Miranda is one of a generation of Liberian girls who have spent more time at war than at school. Her country had little hope of meeting the Millennium Development Goal of having equal numbers of girls and boys in school by 2005. Three years ago, the war-weary West African nation was emerging from a brutal 14 year civil war that brought it to its knees, destroying 70% of school buildings and hundreds of thousands of lives.
Almost five years after the end of the conflict, school enrolment rates hover around the 50% mark. The gender gap is stark; only 31% of girls, compared to 54% of boys are enrolled in primary education in Liberia. All too often it is girls who are forced to drop out of school to boost family incomes. Miranda is one of the lucky ones. She sells doughnuts. Other girls are forced to sell their bodies.

Charlotte Kaicora, headmistress of a primary school in the coastal capital Monrovia, says only a small number of female students successfully make the transition from primary to secondary education. "When families have economic difficulties, it is usually girls who are forced to drop out of school. Boys are seen as future breadwinners and most parents are prepared to invest more in their education," she says.
Last year the Liberian government introduced the Free and Compulsory Education Act as an initial step to help meet a Millennium Development Goal to have all primary age children enrolled in school by 2015. Under the new law, all children aged between 5 and 11 are supposed to be able to attend school free of charge.

The reality is somewhat different. The costs of uniforms, stationary and other supplies make education unaffordable for many parents. The cost of kitting out three children in school uniforms is $20 – two weeks' wages for the average Liberian. Despite the new government initiative, some primary schools still ask parents to pay unofficial fees.
Thirteen-year-old Jelila Webbah left school at 11 to help her parents in their traditional restaurant on the outskirts of the sprawling capital Monrovia. Damp, rotting benches skirt the counter and the air is heavy with the sweat of labourers stopping for a chat. "I'd like Jelila to return to school, but the money she brings in for the restaurant pays for school uniforms for my sons," says Jelila's mother Sarah.

Female students like Jelila often drop out of school when puberty hits. Only 22% of public schools in Liberia have seats and only one third have functioning pit latrines or flush toilets, making the onset of menstruation and other growing pains hard to deal with at school.
It is one of the reasons why aid organisations working in Liberia are prioritising school infrastructure. Agencies say they are noticing that female attendance rates drop when school bathroom facilities are not working.
"We need to ensure that girls not only enrol in school, but stay in school after age 11 or 12. We're launching a project to reward the families of girl students with bags of rice and other foodstuffs based on their school attendance rates" says Steve Miller, project coordinator for visions in action, a relief organisation that is working to make education accessible to all Liberians.

The Liberian ministry for education is keen to halt gender inequality in schools but lacks the resources to do so without the support of donor countries such as the UK and US. "Female education is key in this country. If we can boost the number of girls in school, we will reduce the number of girls working on the street and also the number of premature marriages" says Hawa Gol Kotchi, Liberia's deputy education minister.
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