Lost Years

Early in my time here in Liberia, I was told something that I’ve repeated on a number of occasions.  During a meeting with at the Ministry of Justice, when the topic of the lack of human capacity within Liberia came up, Minister Tah said, “What you need to understand is that most Liberians lost 15-25 years of their education and professional development because of the civil conflict.”Sometimes it’s hard to get a real grasp of the implications of something like that.  What does that really mean?  Well, last week one of our education advisors informed the mission management of the results of a recent survey that put a shocking dimension to Minister Tah’s comment.  And I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. 

In Liberia, there are more 20-year-olds in second grade than there are 7-year olds.