MONROVIA, LIBERIA-Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling on the Liberian government to eliminate registration fees, amend education laws, and increase investment in the Education Sector.
Human Rights Watch is a global independent organization that investigates and reports on human rights abuses, holding governments accountable for violations affecting vulnerable populations worldwide.
The appeal came on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, when the Organization’s Children’s Rights Advocacy Director, Jo Becker, presented a six-month report covering November 2025 through January 2026, finding that only thirty-eight percent of Liberian children complete primary school, against a global average of ninety percent.
Madam Becker said,” Researchers visited at least twenty-one schools across five counties, interviewing nearly two hundred people, including parents, teachers, principals, and more than sixty children and youth directly affected by the crisis”.
She said,” HRW found that fees are forcing children into labor, causing prolonged absences, and driving alarming dropout rates, with one school in Bong County losing over twenty percent of students yearly”.
Meanwhile, the report recommended an increase in the education budget in order to adequately address these challenges.