Liberia’s education minister says she finds it hard to believe that not a single candidate passed this year’s university admission exam.
Nearly 25,000 school-leavers failed the test for admission to the University of Liberia, one of two state-run universities.
The students lacked enthusiasm and did not have a basic grasp of English, a university official told the BBC.
Liberia is recovering from a brutal civil war that ended a decade ago.
‘Dreams shattered’
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel peace laureate, recently acknowledged that the education system was still “in a mess”, and much needed to be done to improve it.
Many schools lack basic education material and teachers are poorly qualified, reports the BBC’s Jonathan Paye-Layleh from the capital, Monrovia.
However, this is the first time that every single student who wrote the exam for a fee of $25 (£16) has failed, our reporter says.
It means that the overcrowded university will not have any new first-year students when it reopens next month for the academic year.
Students told him the result was unbelievable and their dreams had been shattered, our reporter adds.
[…]
