Primary school instructor Richard Morgan can no longer stroll between the rows of desks to teach in his classroom at the SIMS Community School. The boys and girls are crammed shoulder-to-shoulder in their blue and white uniforms as Morgan lectures from the front of the room.

“We have classrooms that take up to 50 students, but now some of the classes have up to 60 to 65 students,” Morgan said.

Liberian youths are packing Liberia’s public primary schools under a free, compulsory education programme, but the country’s beleaguered, post-war school system can barely keep up with desks, books and other supplies. At the cost of about US $5, children purchased and then brought their desks with them when they enrolled at SIMS.

The government of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf aims to dramatically increase the country’s enrollment rate through the Education for All law that was enacted in 2004.

"The enforcement is getting the results we want. Children are now coming from the farms, off the street and into the classrooms," Sirleaf recently told reporters.

Enforcement is done through campaigns in the media to raise awareness among parents that education for their children is available.

Conflict erodes education

Many schools were destroyed or damaged during Liberia’s 14-year civil war. Thousands of tonnes of school furniture, roofs, doors and window-frames were burned for cooking fuel by those who had been displaced by the war, according to the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF). During the conflict, few parents could afford fees in places were schools were operational and a number of other children replaced their books with guns as they joined the various armed groups roaming the country.

Parents used to have to pay US $9 for their child to attend primary school for an academic year, which was a heavy burden in a country where there is 85 percent unemployment and most people live on less than US $1 per day, according to the World Bank. A 50kg bag of rice, the country’s staple food, costs at least US $20 and generally lasts less than a month to feed a family of six.

By the end of the war in 2003 more than half of school-age children did not attend school, according to UNICEF. But now that education is free that trend is changing.

"From the statistics so far we have between 400,000 to 500,000 kids now in primary schools, especially at the public schools,” Education Minister Joseph Korto told IRIN. “This figure is enormous and at the moment we need more benches, teachers and classrooms to ease the congestion.”

Prior to 2006, an estimated 95,000 children attended primary school, according to the Liberian Institute of Geo-Information Services, a donor-funded government agency that collects development statistics. It says about half of Liberia’s 3.2 million population is under the age of 18.

More support needed

UNICEF and its partners are supporting the government’s Education for All campaign by supplying basic educational materials for teachers and students, and mobilising parents and communities to enroll children.

"Liberia is just coming from war and we are starting to rebuild our lives from scratch. So most of us do not have jobs and sending our kids to schools without any cost is highly commendable," said Martin Karnga, a father of seven.

Although education is more available, officials say an improved curriculum and more teachers are desperately needed.

UNICEF says the quality of Liberia's education sector has been declining for two decades, as low salaries and poor working conditions began driving qualified teachers out of public schools. About 65 percent of Liberian children in primary and secondary schools are taught by unqualified teachers, according to UNICEF.

Education Minister Korto said more teachers would be trained this year. The average Liberian public school teacher makes the equivalent of US $36 per month or less.