Claim: “President George Weah has built over 280 schools across Liberia.”
Verdict: Misleading, there is no record that Weah has built 280 schools across Liberia.
Full Text: Randall Dobayou, Deputy Executive Director, Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia (EPA), on June 23, in a radio appearance, claimed (2:03 seconds) that Liberia’s President, George M. Weah, and Standard-bearer of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), have built over 280 schools across Liberia.
Weah is currently contesting his second term since he won the 2017 elections with 732,185 votes, accumulating 61.54% in the run-off elections.
Dobayou, who is currently the deputy secretary of the CDC, appeared to give reasons why Weah should be reelected in the October 10, 2023 elections.
Verification: We contacted Dobayou via WhatsApp to get a source for his claim, but he didn’t respond.
On Facebook, he was contacted, but he said the following:
This is what the UNESCO and Ministry of Education Sector Plan 2022–23–2026–27 report shows.
From 2008 to the present, Liberia has constructed 372 Government primary schools, equivalent to a 15 per cent increase in the number of Government schools offering primary education.
The MOE/ World Bank Project, “Liberian Learning Foundation, should have constructed 54 Early Childhood Education (ECE) classrooms in six Counties.
However, due to high demand and limited resources to address supply constraints, 36 per cent of ECE classrooms and almost 30 per cent of primary school classrooms are located in “makeshift” and “partitioned” structures, according to World Bank data.
Reports showed that President Weah dedicated the King Gray School, Charlesville School, an annexe to Boatswain, and an annexe at the Grand Gedeh Community College.
Additionally, he dedicated an annex at Well-Hairston, which is not a public school. The President Meter report by Naymote revealed that Weah made 36 promises on Education and training; two have been completed, 10 are ongoing, and 24 have not started.
Conclusion: As per our research, there is no record that Weah has built 28 schools. This means that the claim made by the EPA deputy director, and deputy CDC secretary general Dobayou, is Misleading.
This story was produced with the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID)’s support.
