IPNEWS: Spoon FM reports that out of nearly 350 students at the Old Sodoken Community School are struggling due to lack of enough teachers.
According to the report, the school teaches children from Grade 1 to Grade 6 but currently has only two non-regular government-paid teachers, couple with the lack of school principal, with school facility in deplorable condition
The school’s Registrar, Alexander George, told reporters that the principal’s position has been vacant since November 2025. The former principal became ill and left the position, leaving the school without a principal.
George is asking the Ministry of Education, Maryland County lawmakers, and development partners to provide more qualified teachers, appoint a principal, and improve the school’s facilities.
Community members are also calling for urgent help. They told reporters that the problems at the school could hurt their children’s education and their future if nothing is done.
recently the Government of Liberia announced that it has addressed the issue of inadequate teachers through its updated education strategy and Free Basic Education policy, focusing on Financial Restructuring, International recruitment , and payroll regularization.
The government statement also notes that the policy now deploys several key mechanisms to resolve teacher shortages and poor qualifications including Rural Incentives: Prioritizing resource distribution toward underfunded Rural Teacher Training Institutes (RTTIs) to improve pre-service teacher preparation and rural retention; Sourcing Foreign Talent: Sourcing qualified and experienced foreign teachers to temporarily bridge immediate instructional gaps; Direct School Grants: Replacing student registration fees with direct capitation grants to schools, providing localized funding to maintain teaching staff; and Payroll and Training Management: Partnering with international organizations to enforce the National Teacher Training Management Policy, targeting the placement of trained educators onto the civil service payroll to reduce the bottleneck of unpaid or unlisted teachers.
