By Emmanuel T. Degleh, Courage K. Ballah & Famata L. Buttel

TODEE STATUTORY DISTRICT, Rural Montserrado County — In Yoe Town, the sound of the school bell has been replaced by the steady patter of rain on bare concrete.

Nearly two years after a violent storm ripped the zinc roof from Yoe Town Public School, more than 200 school-aged children remain trapped in educational limbo—not because of conflict or disease, but because a public institution was damaged and then forgotten.

The four-classroom school, which serves children from more than ten surrounding towns and villages in Fahn-Seh Clan, stands exposed to sun and rain. Its roof is gone, classrooms stripped of basic learning materials, and doors largely shut to students who once filled its benches with laughter and expectation.

Despite repeated appeals to education authorities, the school remains unrepaired. With another academic year slipping away, parents and community leaders fear the cost of prolonged neglect may be irreversible.

A School Left Behind

Yoe Town Public School is among the most populated government-run schools in Fahn-Seh Clan. Yet today it lacks armchairs, blackboards, toilet facilities, and an adequate number of teachers. When classes are occasionally held, pupils sit on bare floors or crowd into unsafe spaces. During the rainy season, learning stops entirely.

“We have tried everything,” said Fahn-Seh Clan Chief Joseph Yowateh. “We engaged the former district education officer, and we are still engaging the current one, but nothing has changed.”

One of the delipidates class rooms of the school – students bring their own chairs or must sit on the bare floor to take lesson.

In the absence of government intervention, the community has resorted to self-help—pooling meager resources to carry out minor repairs in the hope of reopening the school. Those efforts, leaders admit, fall far short of what is required to rehabilitate a structure that has been severely damaged for years.

The Hidden Cost of Inaction

Chief Yowateh warns that the consequences of continued inaction extend beyond missed lessons.

“If nothing is done urgently, our girls may be forced into early marriage, and our boys will end up on the streets,” he said. “Education is the only shield we have.”

Local parents say some children have already stopped attending school altogether, while others trek long distances to overcrowded facilities in neighboring communities—an option many families cannot sustain.

Teachers on Payroll, Classrooms Empty

Beyond crumbling infrastructure, questions are also being raised about teacher accountability in Todee District.

According to Yowateh and other community leaders, several teachers assigned to public schools in the district are allegedly collecting government salaries while teaching in private schools in Margibi County.

“Names are on the payroll here, but the classrooms are empty,” Yowateh said. “Some of these teachers live and work in Kakata and Harbel, but their salaries are paid as if they are serving in Todee.”

Community leaders have called on the Ministry of Education to conduct a physical verification of teachers assigned to the district and to publish updated deployment lists for all public schools.

A District-Wide Pattern

What is happening in Yoe Town is not an isolated case.

 

At Koon Town Public School, the only government-run high school in Ding-Gola Chiefdom, administrators and students are appealing for a modern facility to accommodate a growing student population. The school serves learners from Manquah, Ding, and Meim clans but struggles with overcrowded classrooms, poor infrastructure, and the absence of a library and dormitory facilities for students who travel long distances.

Students sit on makeshift bench of sticks to take lesson

Because of limited space, the school runs two academic sessions daily—from kindergarten through 12th grade—stretching both teachers and students thin.

Community advocate Varney Williams says the human cost of systemic neglect is already visible.

“Parents have big dreams for their children, but those dreams are being buried—not because students are failing, but because opportunities end at high school,” Williams said.

In a rare personal intervention, Williams pledged to underwrite tuition for three un-enrolled students for the 2025–26 academic year, while urging national leaders to confront the structural barriers that keep rural students from accessing tertiary education.

A Symbolic Name, Stark Reality

Perhaps the starkest symbol of neglect in Todee District is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Public School in Tumay—named after Liberia’s former president but operating under conditions far removed from that legacy.

Established a decade ago, the school has no government-assigned teachers, no desks, and no library. Out of 170 enrolled students, only two volunteer teachers struggle to keep the institution afloat. Pupils either sit on the floor or stand throughout lessons.

Across Todee District, community leaders estimate that the majority of its 48 public schools face similar challenges: collapsing buildings, chronic teacher shortages, and an acute lack of instructional materials.

Official Response: Acknowledgment, Few Timelines

When contacted, Prince Foeday, Todee District Education Officer, acknowledged that some of the challenges cited by communities are real, while others are not. He declined, however, to specify which claims he disputed, saying he could not discuss the matter further over the telephone.

At the county level, Amos Karneh, Montserrado County-2 Education Officer, acknowledged persistent problems with infrastructure, seating capacity, and teacher absenteeism in Todee District.

Karneh said the Ministry of Education has recruited 141 volunteer teachers from host communities to replace absentee staff and has made monthly attendance reporting compulsory. Teachers with unexcused absences, he said, will face sanctions under the Civil Service Standing Orders.

He also disclosed that the Ministry’s budget includes a line item for school repair and maintenance. Three schools elsewhere in Montserrado County have already been captured under that budget, and, according to Karneh, Yoe Town Public School is next in line for rehabilitation.

Development Without Delivery

Karneh further noted that Zannah Town Public Senior High School in Todee was forced to downgrade to a junior high school due to a shortage of qualified teachers, despite having solid infrastructure-built years ago by the World Bank. He said the Ministry has begun reassigning teachers in an effort to restore the school’s senior high status.

For parents in Yoe Town, however, assurances and future plans offer little comfort as their children remain at home, out of school.

Storms may have blown away the roofs of Todee’s schools, but it is prolonged institutional silence that now threatens an entire generation’s future.

As Liberia promotes education as a pathway to national development, communities in Todee District are left asking a painful question: what happens when public schools collapse—and no one comes to rebuild them?

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Editorial Note: This story was written by investigative journalism students of the University of Liberia, Department of Communication and Media Studies, under the supervision of Danicius Kaihenneh Sengbeh. The publisher bears no responsibility for any errors or omissions contained in this article