MONROVIA – The Liberian government has announced the transition of 56% of volunteer teachers to the public payroll following violent protests by students of the Monrovia Consolidated School System (MCSS), which were met with a heavy-handed police response.
Education Minister Dr. Jarso Marley Jallah, speaking at the Ministry of Information’s press briefing on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, disclosed that 3,557 of the 6,190 volunteer teachers in the system met the qualifications for payroll integration. In collaboration with the Civil Service Agency (CSA) and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP), the government has secured funding to place 2,000 of these teachers on the payroll by April 30, 2025. Minister Jallah emphasized that this move aligns with the ARREST Agenda’s goal of inclusive development, ensuring fair compensation and addressing teacher shortages, particularly in rural and underserved areas.
The decision follows a heated standoff between students and police earlier in the day, when members of the Liberia National Police’s Emergency Response Unit (ERU) fired teargas at protesting students near the Capitol Building. The students, who had been demonstrating for weeks in solidarity with their striking teachers, blocked key roads in central Monrovia, demanding that all volunteer teachers be fully employed and given long-overdue salary adjustments.
The government’s response to the protest has drawn widespread criticism, with disturbing images of students choking on teargas and being forcibly removed by officers circulating on social media. Witnesses report that several students were beaten and dragged from the protest site. The police crackdown has reignited public debate over the government’s commitment to education and its treatment of students advocating for their rights.
Meanwhile, concerns over the process by which MCSS rapidly recruited thousands of volunteer teachers led to an emergency high-level meeting on Tuesday. Chaired by Finance Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan and attended by Education Minister Jallah, CSA Director-General Dr. Josiah F. Joekai, and other senior officials, the meeting resulted in a decision to deploy CSA verification teams across MCSS schools. The teams will vet and validate the list of volunteer teachers over the next three weeks to prevent payroll inflation and ensure teaching standards are upheld.
As tensions remain high, the government has called on MCSS teachers and students to return to the classroom while it works to address their concerns. However, with public outrage mounting over the police’s violent response and uncertainty lingering over the fate of many teachers, the crisis in Liberia’s education sector is far from over.
