Lessons from a radical education experiment in Liberia

IN 2016 GEORGE WERNERRCT faced an unenviable task. Liberia’s education minister was in charge of one of the most difficult school systems in the world. More than a decade of civil war and an outbreak of Ebola in 2014 had stopped many children from going to class. Those who did learned little. Just 25% of Liberian women who completed primary school could read, one of the lowest shares anywhere. Mr Werner’s budget was a mere $50 per pupil per year. Many teachers on his payroll were “ghosts” who did not exist but somehow kept on drawing salaries.So Mr Werner signed off on one of the boldest public-policy experiments in recent African history. He outsourced 93 primary schools containing 8.6% of state-school pupils to eight private operators. Five charities and three companies were monitored in a randomised controlled trial (). Researchers tracked test scores in the operators’ schools and nearby government ones. More than three years later, the results are in. They reveal the messy reality of education reform in one of the world’s poorest countries.