Published: June 3, 2026
BEHLA TOWN, Bong County — For 61 years, the children of Behla Town had no school. Boys drifted to nearby gold mines. Girls became mothers before they became students. And every family that wanted something different for a child had to find motorcycle fare to Gbarnga, an hour away, and hope it kept coming.
That is now changing.
Construction of Behla Town’s first elementary school is underway following a groundbreaking by Bong County Sen. Prince Kermue Moye. The $26,000 project, expected to be completed within three months, will serve children from Behla Town and neighboring communities, including Blameyea. The community, established in 1965, has a population of more than 2,000 and has never had a school within its boundaries.
For Town Chief Amos Tulorgboe, the moment carries the weight of a lifetime.
“I grew up here and never had the chance to go to school,” he said. “We have waited for this day for a very long time.”
The consequences of that wait have been generational. Parents who could afford the transportation enrolled children in Gbarnga schools, only to pull them back when the daily fares became unsustainable. Most children never made it to a classroom at all, with many staying indefinitely with relatives in other communities to access education. Chief Tulorgboe said only a handful of Behla Town children have ever attended school regularly.
For girls, the deprivation has carried a particular cost. The chief said roughly 80 percent of girls aged 16 and above in the community have had at least one child. “Many of our girls become mothers before they become students,” he said.
The picture in Behla Town reflects a national crisis. UNICEF estimates that between 15 and 20 percent of Liberian children between the ages of 6 and 14 are out of school, with access to early childhood education especially limited in remote rural communities where schools are often located far from where children live. A recent Human Rights Watch report put the challenge in starker terms, finding that roughly one-third of school-aged children in Liberia have never attended school, with rural communities bearing the heaviest burden and nearly half of rural children having never entered a classroom.
In Behla Town, those statistics have faces. Chief Tulorgboe said children regularly roam the community during school hours while boys as young as early adolescence head to the gold mines.
The community has not waited passively for the building to go up. Women, men and children are on the construction site daily, carrying water and assisting contractors.
“We want this project to succeed,” Chief Tulorgboe said. “The whole town is ready to support it.”
Among those helping is Esther Sumo, a mother of three. “This school is a dream come true for us,” she said. “Our children have suffered because there was nowhere for them to learn.” But Sumo is already looking past the ribbon-cutting. She wants the government to deploy qualified teachers once the walls are finished. “A building alone is not enough,” she said. “We need teachers so our children can have a future.”
Nearby, Mammie Kollie watched the construction with barely contained excitement. “This school will help save many young girls,” she said. “If children are in school, they can focus on learning instead of getting into trouble.”
Her hope is grounded in evidence. Education experts consistently argue that access to schooling reduces vulnerability among young people, expands economic opportunity and interrupts cycles of poverty and early pregnancy. The Ministry of Education has repeatedly described foundational learning as central to improving literacy and long-term outcomes, and has identified expanding access in underserved communities as a national priority.
Chief Tulorgboe expects enrollment to surge the moment classes begin. “Hundreds of children are waiting for this opportunity,” he said. “Children from Behla and nearby towns like Blameyea will all benefit.” Contractors have assured residents the project will be completed on schedule, crediting community involvement for keeping the work moving.
Even as the walls rise, residents are already thinking beyond the elementary years. Parents are calling on authorities to eventually expand the facility into a junior and senior high school. “We don’t want our children to stop after elementary school,” Sumo said. “We want them to continue learning and become leaders tomorrow.”
For now, the people of Behla Town are marking a milestone many once thought would never come. For the first time in the community’s six-decade history, a generation of children may soon be able to walk to school rather than watch their future pass them by.
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