Education in Liberia: Basic Diagnostic Using the 2007 CWIQ Survey

This chapter was written in 2007 in order to inform the diagnostic of Liberia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. Little has been written on the education system in Liberia since the start of the conflict in large part because of lack of good data. The chapter provides a diagnostic of Liberia’s education system as seen from the point of view of households using the new nationally representative Core Welfare Questionnaire Indicator (CWIQ) survey implemented in 2007. The analysis covers school enrollment rates as well as the reasons for not going to school, and the degree of satisfaction of households with the services received, in each case looking at various age groups and boys and girls separately,as well as at different types of facilities providing education services. Data are also presented on household private spending for education, as well as on distances to facilities. A benefit incidence analysis of public spending for education is conducted, and regression analysis is used to assess the determinants of school enrollment.