Published: October 9, 2026
LOUISIANA TOWNSHIP, Montserrado County — About 13 miles (under 45 minutes drive) from the Capitol Building, where lawmakers pass the national budget that funds public education, children at a government school in Louisiana Township are carrying bricks into their classrooms because there is nowhere else to sit.
By Blamo N. Toe
J.W.A. Richards Elementary, Junior and Senior High School has 722 students and 77 usable chairs, roughly one seat for every nine children, according to figures provided by Principal S. Tayata Sirleaf. Another 210 chairs are damaged. The shortage persists 10 months after the government launched its “One Child, One Chair” initiative, which promised every public-school student an appropriate place to sit and learn.
“I am sitting on the block because there is no chair,” said Aminata, a pupil in the school’s lower grades. “There are not enough chairs here; let the government bring chairs.”
During a visit to the school, The Liberian Investigator found students from early childhood education through 12th grade sitting on concrete blocks, on the floor and on their own slippers and shoes. Some students left their classrooms during lessons to search outside the compound for bricks to carry back in. Many of the bricks came from beside a police station near the school, which Sirleaf said the district’s representative built.
The school, in Montserrado County Electoral District No. 1, enrolls 346 students from early childhood education through sixth grade and 376 from seventh through 12th grade. It has 23 government-paid teachers and six volunteers.
Sirleaf said the shortage has lasted three years and that his appeals have gone unanswered while other public schools nearby have received chairs under the national program.
“We are the only high school on this side, but why is it that we have not been served?” he said.
Bricks, Slippers and the Floor
In early childhood and elementary classrooms, children who appeared to be between 4 and 10 years old sat on blocks, slippers, and other makeshift surfaces while teachers taught. Some placed their exercise books on blocks to write.
Pupils Amanda, Laurina and Dorcas said some children bring chairs from home, but carrying them to and from school every day is difficult.
“I am sitting on my slippers because the children took all the seats,” Dorcas said. “I feel bad learning like this.”
Students who live farther from campus say they lose out every morning. Ninth grader Freeman D. Sesay said the few available chairs are taken before he arrives.
“Some of us live and come from far distances, and before we get on the campus, the chairs are already taken by our colleagues who probably live closer to the school or come sooner,” Sesay said.
He said he had gone more than a week without a regular classroom seat and was considering borrowing a bench or chair from a nearby home and returning it after classes.
Eighth grader Samuel P. Sumo said students who arrive late often have nowhere to sit.
“When our friends are sitting, we will have to stand up. We are sometimes compelled to stand while learning,” Sumo said.
Sirleaf said students arrive as early as 6:45 a.m. to compete for seats, and those coming from White Plains, Crozierville, Gold Grace Community and Upper Caldwell find the chairs already occupied.
“I mean, for us on campus to come in the morning and see students sitting all in a corridor, sitting on a banister, saying, no chair, no chair, and they are not part of the learning process,” he said.
‘You Are Sitting on Bricks’
In the senior high division, students sat on bricks beside classmates who had armchairs. Twelfth grader Alexander G.B. Brownell said students collect the bricks from a construction site behind the school.
“Some students, when they check around, go there to get the bricks. Sometimes when rain falls, the place can be very wet, so you can dirty your clothes, your trousers and all. Yeah, so it’s very bad,” he said.
Brownell said students seated low on bricks at the back of crowded classrooms struggle to see the board.
“Even when the teacher is writing, you will see them struggling to see what is written on the board because they are way behind and sitting down on bricks. They are sitting very low,” he said.
“Secondly, when the teacher is in class, you are not going to be in the right mood because you are feeling hurt. You see your friends sitting on chairs and feeling comfortable while you are sitting on bricks.”
He appealed to the government, humanitarian organizations and the district’s lawmaker to intervene.
“People are encouraged to come to the school, but they come to the school and find out that chairs are a problem. Chairs are the major problem,” Brownell said.
Twelfth grader Musu Leila Dukuly said overcrowding, heat and the lack of electricity compound the problem.
“I feel very bad because we don’t have enough sitting capacity here. Some sit on blocks, some stand while teachers are teaching, and I feel very bad about that,” Dukuly said.
“It’s hot. There is no fan, no current. Some of us have shortness of breath,” she said.
She also called for a fence around the campus, saying some students leave during recess to look for food and do not return on time, or at all.
Three Years of Appeals
Sirleaf said he took the school’s case to the Education Ministry’s deputy minister for instruction, who told him to submit the request in writing. He said he routed the request through the district education officer.
“I think the DEO has sent the communication, but yet, they have not been able to come to our call,” Sirleaf said.
He said the free education policy for early childhood through sixth grade has driven up enrollment without a matching supply of furniture.
“The Ministry of Education declared the elementary from ECE to sixth grade free. So you’ll find out that all of the classes are jam-packed, but yet no seats,” he said. “You go from seventh to 12th grade, all of the classes are also jam-packed, with no seats.”
Some families send furniture from home each day, Sirleaf said.
“They bring them from their houses, put them in a car and bring them here to sit on. After that they carry it back home,” he said. “Other people who have plastic chairs in their homes take them and bring them because they just want to be part of the school system.”
He said the supply of bricks near the police station is itself running out.
“If you can see the number of bricks being used in the school, the bricks are finishing because there are no seats. Any child carrying a brick can at least be able to sit,” he said.
Sirleaf stopped short of accusing the government of excluding the school.
“I can’t say they denied us because, according to the information, they are still in the process of sharing chairs,” he said. “So, I don’t call it denial. But it is just delaying, and it is creating a serious challenge for us.”
The National Promise
The government, through the Ministry of Education and the Civil Service Agency, launched “One Child, One Chair” in late December 2025 by presenting the first 525 locally manufactured school chairs to President Joseph Nyuma Boakai.
Civil Service Agency Director-General Josiah F. Joekai Jr. said the chairs were financed with revenue from enforcement of the national asset declaration mandate and built in partnership with the Monrovia Vocational Training Center.
“The production of these chairs not only supports education but also creates skills development and decent work opportunities for our citizens,” Joekai said.
Education Minister Jarso Maley Jallah said the distribution would be accompanied by transparent tracking and maintenance systems to ensure chairs reached schools fairly. Boakai said adequate school furniture was an important step toward removing preventable barriers to education. The government said it would produce and distribute more chairs in the coming months.
Not Only Louisiana
The conditions at J.W.A. Richards match what The Liberian Investigator found earlier at government schools in Bong and River Cess counties.
At J.F. Clarke Elementary School in Gbarnga, Bong County, which has nearly 600 students across two sessions, students sat on broken chairs and cement blocks, some left over from the school’s fence construction. Others wrote on their laps.
“Some of the chairs we are sitting on here are very ugly, and some of us sit on cement blocks, which is not fair. We are calling on the Ministry of Education to come to our aid,” student Rebecca L. Matthews said.
Teachers there, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the school had received no stationery from the government since the start of the academic year.
At Toga McIntosh Elementary and Junior High School in Yarpleh Town, River Cess County, the furniture shortage sits alongside unfinished classrooms and unpaid teachers. Principal Samuel W. Yarpleh said the school has 270 elementary and 30 junior high students, six government-paid teachers and five volunteers, and one early childhood class of 65.
Yarpleh said he and four other staff members had each gone four months without their government salaries. Dean of Students Eugene F. Gowah said he had not been paid since February and had stopped teaching.
“Let me rest my mind before I start giving the children nonsense as lessons,” Gowah said.
River Cess County Education Officer Dailay David Konway acknowledged teacher and infrastructure shortages across the county’s public schools.
“We have challenges. We are not saying that there are no challenges,” Konway said.
In Montserrado and Bong alike, the image is the same: children using bricks and cement blocks as classroom seats.
At J.W.A. Richards, a short drive from the seat of government, the school day still begins with a race. Some children arrive early enough to claim one of the 77 chairs. The rest stand, sit on the floor or go looking for bricks.
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