It’s another Saturday at work, but our attention is drawn to the recently released West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results in Liberia—once again serving as a sobering reminder of the urgent need to overhaul our education system.
While a handful of students—fewer than 2%—have excelled through sheer determination and resilience, the overall performance remains deeply disappointing. These results expose the long-standing cracks in our system: poor learning environments, under-resourced schools, weak teacher capacity, and limited accountability. Many of my colleagues in the classroom may not like this truth, but it must be said.
Year after year, thousands of students sit for these exams with excitement and high expectations, only to be met with outcomes that reflect systemic failure rather than individual shortcomings. This consistent pattern of low pass rates is not merely a reflection of student ability—it is a national alarm bell, demanding urgent attention.
Education is the foundation of national progress. If government, school administrators, parents, and society at large continue to neglect it, we risk crippling the future of Liberia. The WASSCE results should not be reduced to mere statistics of failure and success. They must be seen as a mirror reflecting the urgent demand for quality teaching, access to textbooks and modern learning tools, stronger monitoring systems, and policies that treat education as a national emergency.
Liberia cannot afford to watch its young generation continually stumble at this critical academic stage. The time for half measures is over. What is needed now is bold, decisive, and sustained action to rescue the soul of Liberian education.
