Students talk and catch up at Matilda Newport Junior High School, a public school, on the first day of registration for classes in Monrovia, Liberia, on Monday, January 12, 2015. (Photo by Cheryl Hatch)
"Some parents borrow money from their susu club," said Fayia, referring to the informal lending groups popular in Africa and the Caribbean. "And if they are business minded, they can get a bank loan. But this is very few. The best solution is that the government can assist."The school situation is the talk of the street, and it seems every Liberian has an opinion and plan about what is to be done. Matthew S. Bestman is a public school teacher himself, in the Bush Rod Island neighborhood of Monrovia. "The government should pay for six months of private school," he said. "The government needs to come in and subsidize. The loan from the central bank is not enough."But Prinicpal Fayia refers to this as "just talk." There is no official plan waiting in the wings. In the meantime, her boss has told her to create a seven month tuition payment plan, an unprecedented step. At other schools, entrepreneurs are stepping in to fill the gap. The vice principal of instruction at Matilda Newport Junior High School is offering loans at a 25 percent interest rate per month.'Parents are still skeptical about school, but with triage, and checking students before class, it is safe.'
Principal Cecilia Fayia rearranges desks in an empty classroom at Adventist High School on Monday, January 12, 2015, in Monrovia, Liberia. Fayia spaces each desk three feet apart as a precaution against the spread of Ebola. (Photo by Cheryl Hatch)
A series of posters on Ebola awareness hang at the entrance to Matilda Newport Junior High School in Monrovia. (Photo by Cheryl Hatch)
Ebola decimated Unification City, an audaciously named hamlet on the main highway between Monrovia and the country's upland interior. The nearby village of Dolo Town was quarantined. Bethel Heart of Faith church lost its pastor and eight other church elders. Pastor Kortu Koilor is the new spiritual leader of the parish, but he is also a teacher of religious education and literature at the local high school. If anyone knows the dangers of confined groups, it is Koilor, and yet he said: "Parents are still skeptical about school, but with triage, and checking students before class, it is safe. Hand washing will continue forever. It is part of the culture now."Koilor's youth minister, Thomas Ballah, agreed. Ballah is an elementary school teacher, and similarly wished to return to the classroom. "We did elections, we should go back to school," he said. "Children are forgetting their classes. They only know Ebola."'Children are forgetting their classes. They only know Ebola.'
A dictionary and Barack Obama's book, The Audacity of Hope, sit on the desk of senior registrar Anthony K. Johnson on the first day of registration for classes at Matilda Newport Junior High School, a public school, in Monrovia, Liberia. (Photo by Cheryl Hatch)