Published: October 21, 2026
MONROVIA — Hundreds of students of the Monrovia Consolidated School System blocked major roads in Central Monrovia and Paynesville on Tuesday, demanding the return of teachers whose go-slow has left their classrooms without instruction for three months.
By Alphanso G. Kalama
The government responded the same day by moving the system’s last 201 verified volunteer teachers onto the national payroll. But the school system’s superintendent told lawmakers that payroll wasn’t what was keeping teachers out of class. She said the real dispute is over pay raises, and the government has deferred them to a civil service salary reform with no timetable.
“This is the issue,” MCSS Superintendent Augurie E. Stevens told the House of Representatives on Tuesday, after saying many teachers had earned higher degrees without any change in their salaries. “And once we can address that issue, the teachers will be able to go to class.”
Students marched along Broad Street, Randall Street, and Pipeline Road, among other routes. Traffic on Pipeline Road in Paynesville stood still for more than four hours as students mounted roadblocks, chanted slogans and waved placards, leaving commuters and pedestrians stranded.
The Monrovia Consolidated School System Students’ Union led the march, under its president, Sekou V. Siryon, and its general secretary, Jenkins B. Toe. The march ended at the Capitol Building, where the students presented a petition to the House. Rep. Prince A. Toles of Montserrado County District 8, who chairs the House committee on claims and petitions, received it.
The students had staged scattered protests since last Thursday. On Monday, at a news conference, they gave the government 24 hours to act. When that deadline passed Tuesday morning, they took to the streets.
The petition, dated Oct. 20, is titled “Four Demands, One Struggle.” It calls on the government to fulfill a memorandum of understanding signed March 27, dismiss MCSS Assistant Superintendent Emmanuel Kyne Robertson, stop drawing students into disputes among administrators, and increase the school system’s budget.
“We want our teachers in the classrooms, our students learning, our schools improved, and our rights protected,” the union said in the petition.
On the memorandum, the students said they recognized the importance of teachers’ welfare but that students must not keep paying for disputes left unresolved. They called for the outstanding commitments to be carried out and for steps to restore normal teaching across the system.
The union accused Robertson of inciting students, disrupting classes and threatening students. It also cited an incident in which it said individuals were sent to attack Siryon. The petition asks the government and the Ministry of Education to take administrative action, investigate the allegations and protect student leaders from intimidation.
Stevens told lawmakers she has no authority to act on the demand for Robertson’s dismissal.
The petition also said the MCSS central office has become divided. The union said students “must not be used as instruments to advance anyone’s personal, administrative, or political interests,” and it urged administrators to settle their differences through dialogue and established procedures.
On the budget, the union welcomed renovation work underway at Boatswain Junior and Senior High School, G.W. Gibson Senior High School, and Matilda Newport Junior High School. It said many other schools still have poor infrastructure, crowded classrooms, too little furniture and poor sanitation. The union called for a larger allocation to the MCSS and for transparency in how education funds are spent.
The union said it issued its ultimatum in good faith and believes in dialogue, but warned that “our patience must not be mistaken for weakness.”
In a Tuesday statement, the government said consultations among the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, the Civil Service Agency, and the MCSS had resulted in a decision to place the outstanding 201 volunteer teachers on the payroll, effective October. Those teachers will receive their October salaries as formally employed government teachers. The statement said the move brings the number of verified MCSS volunteers placed on the national payroll to 409.
The government said it would pay the affected teachers’ retroactive salaries one week after the October payroll, based on their eligibility categories.
Regarding raises for teachers already on the payroll, the statement said the issue would be addressed through the government-wide salary structure reform, which it said is intended to correct pay disparities across the public service. The statement provided no date for that reform. It urged teachers to “remain calm and return to their classrooms” while the measures are carried out and students to stay in school.
Before lawmakers, Stevens said the first 208 volunteers had already been added to the payroll and that a meeting Monday night with the finance ministry and the Civil Service Agency had cleared the remaining 201. That puts the system’s payroll at 1,069 teachers, she said. On the volunteer portion of the memorandum, she said: “It’s settled.”
She appealed to teachers to “go and teach our children.” Some teachers earn as little as US$185 a month and travel long distances to work while transportation costs rise, she said.
One representative said her answers gave no assurance that students would be back in class the next day. “This is unacceptable,” the lawmaker said. “By you telling us that you enroll, it does not solve the problem.”
Another lawmaker asked how many teachers the memorandum covered in total and what had happened to those not yet placed. The lawmaker also asked for a full breakdown of the budget the MCSS received this fiscal year, a list of completed projects, a plan to keep renovations from costing students class time, and whether a salary structure tied to teachers’ qualifications exists.
A third lawmaker said the superintendent had not fully disclosed the dispute’s root cause. The lawmaker said the MCSS teachers’ association had called for her removal, alleging she refused to work with teachers. The lawmaker also said they had a copy of the memorandum, which teachers say was not fulfilled, and would share it with colleagues.
Toles thanked Stevens for getting the 201 volunteers onto the payroll. He also raised a separate petition before the House from MCSS students who went to India and say they are receiving no support there, and asked her to address their welfare.
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