President Joseph N. Boakai has launched the Excellence in Learning in Liberia (EXCEL) Project, declaring it a transformative national investment aimed at delivering quality, equitable, and resilient education for more than 350,000 Liberian children across the country. Speaking Monday, December 15, 2025, at the Monrovia City Hall, President Boakai said the EXCEL Project goes beyond a development intervention, describing it as a defining statement of Liberia’s commitment to its future.
“If we fail our children in the classroom, we risk failing the nation tomorrow, emphasizing that education remains the foundation of national development,” he added. The EXCEL Project targets four critical areas: improving equitable access to primary education through the construction of 100 climate-resilient schools; rolling out a school capitation grant program to support renovation, rehabilitation, and performance-based incentives; implementing school-based violence prevention programs; and strengthening systems for foundational learning through annual school census and national learning assessments.
According to President Boakai, the initiative will also enhance the capacity of more than 15,000 teachers and empower school leaders in all 15 counties and every political district, while making schools safer and more resilient. He said the project aligns squarely with his administration’s ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development, particularly its focus on human capital development. “This is not just a project, and it is not just financing. It is an investment that will pay dividends in higher productivity, reduced inequality, empowered girls, stronger communities, and a more competitive nation,” Boakai explained.
The Liberian leader welcomed the MAKE Group from the Republic of Korea for its partnership and called on educators, parents, community leaders, and development partners to take collective ownership of the project, urging the Legislature to expedite ratification of the financing to ensure timely implementation. Boakai concluded by challenging the nation to make excellence the norm in education. “Let us ensure that the classrooms of today become the engines of prosperity tomorrow.”
World Bank Country Manager Georgia Wallen said Liberia is in a pivotal moment, stating that Foundational literacy and early numeracy skills are determinants of a child’s future and ultimately of Liberia’s capacity to rise. Yet, she said, too many Liberian children struggle – not because of aptitude but because of the quality of their education. “Test results indicate that today, two out of three Liberian children in grade 3 are unable to read a simple story, and four out of five struggle to demonstrate basic numeracy skills. These numbers are an urgent call to action for all of us,” she added.
She stated that EXCEL is designed to tackle this challenge head‑on. It will bring a renewed focus on the essential skills every child needs—reading, writing, and mathematics—across early childhood education (ECE) and all six grades of primary school, positioning Liberia’s education system to ensure that every Liberian child builds the skills they need for life.
“For the World Bank, EXCEL will be a cornerstone of our partnership framework with the Government of Liberia. Over the next five years, the WBG program has a single, unifying outcome: building the foundations for more and better jobs. Through EXCEL, we commit to help reduce learning poverty—a critical building block for creating opportunity for Liberia’s youth,” Country Manager Wallen stated.
According to her, this is the largest investment in Education in the history of WBG partnership with Liberia. “In addition to $60 million of IDA financing, EXCEL is made possible because partners have rallied around this shared reform. The Global Partnership for Education’s US$28.7 million grant co‑finances the EXCEL project, and development partners—from UNICEF and the EU to bilateral agencies and NGOs—are aligning technical assistance and complementary investments to strengthen implementation. We thank the GPE and all partners for this commitment and collaboration,” she said.
