Fact Check: Did The Sirleaf Gov’t Pay WAEC Fees for Liberian Students

On August 28, 2023, Deputy Finance and Development Planning Minister for Fiscal Affairs Samora P.Z. Wolokolie  in a radio interview made claimed that since the payment of fees to the West African Examination Council (WAEC) for Liberian students was done by former Liberian President Charles Taylor, no other government has done same.

He made claim during an over an interview on OK FM. Mr. Wolokolie was discussing the successes of the current administration — comparing them to previous governments.

Claim: “since President Charles Taylor in 1999 paid WAEC fees for 9^th and 12^th, the last time WAEC or WASSCE fees for Liberian students was paid was when George Weah became President of Liberia”.

Verdict: Mostly Correct

At around 2:21:10 (two hour twenty-one minutes) of the nearly three-hour Facebook Live interview, Mr. Wolokolie claimed that “since President Charles Taylor in 1999 paid WAEC fees for 9^th and 12^th, the last time WAEC or WASSCE fees for Liberian students was paid was when George Weah became President of Liberia”.

So, we decided to fact check the statement made by Deputy Minister Wolokolie by researching publicly available information on the payment of WAEC fees in Liberia.

Using the WayBack Machine to search for announcement from the Ministry of Education, we found a November 28, 2017 (almost two month before the induction of President Weah) press release titled MOE Clarifies, “No Change to Payment of Senior High Exams”. The WayBack Machine is an internet archive that builds a library of digital sites.

The link of the release issued by the Ministry of Education could not open because the website used by the ministry at the time has been shut down.

So, we used the title of the press release issued by the Ministry in 2017 to search for news media reports, and we found two newspaper articles published in 2017.

The FrontPage Africa on December 1, 2017 published an article in which the Government through the Ministry of Education announced the payment of a 25% subsidy for 12^th graders’ WAEC fees.

The article continued that the government had previously paid subsidy for the Liberia Junior High School Certificate Examination (LJHSCE) fees.

Another article published by The Inquirer Newspaper on March 26, 2007 reported that the government announced that it was to pay the West African Examination fees of all primary schools in the country as of the following academic year (2008).

Also, New Dawn newspaper article published on December 1, 2017 that the government  “provides a 25% subsidy for the cost of the WASSCE: Students’ families are charged US$60 for the exam, with the government paying the remaining US$20”.

In 2018, President George Weah in his first State of the Nation address announced the waiver of WASSCE fees for 12^th graders in bother private and public schools.

Conclusion

Therefore, we conclude that the administration of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf paid 25% of WAEC fees for 12 graders. There is no public record available that the government of Madam Sirleaf paid 12^th graders WAEC fees in full.

Therefore, the claim by Deputy Minister Wolokolie is mostly correct. However, the former administration did pay percentage of the fees for 12 graders.

This report was developed with the support of Internews through the USAID Media Activity project. The funder has no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this content.