Gbarnga & Ganta Cities, Liberia – July 21, 2025 – The World Bank today celebrated a significant milestone in Liberia’s educational landscape with the commissioning of new secondary schools in Gbarnga, Bong County, and Ganta, Nimba County. The event marked the successful culmination of the $47 million Improving Results in Secondary Education (IRISE) project, a six-year partnership between the Liberian government and the World Bank.
The World Bank Country Manager, addressing the ceremony, emphasized that while the new buildings provide the foundation, it’s the vibrant atmosphere within a secondary school—”charged with youthful energy, excitement, noise, laughter, ideas, and problem-solving”—that truly makes them special.
The IRISE project, initiated in July 2019, had a clear and ambitious goal: to improve equitable access and quality of secondary education and to provide a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its reach extended to all public and community senior secondary schools nationwide, impacting secondary school-aged students and their teachers.
“Six years of hard work have paid off!” the Country Manager declared, highlighting the project’s wide-ranging impacts. These include:
- Improved learning conditions for over 150 senior secondary schools.
- Scholarship awards to deserving students.
- Recruitment, training, and deployment of female guidance counselors in all 156 senior secondary schools.
- Enhanced quality of teaching and management of the teaching workforce.
- Production and distribution of textbooks in five core subjects to all public senior secondary schools at a 1:1 ratio.
- Investment in digital skills and competency development.
- Financing the construction of the schools being commissioned today.
The Country Manager extended heartfelt gratitude to all contributors to IRISE over the years, including the World Bank team, and offered “hearty kudos” to the Minister of Education and the Ministry for their timely and successful completion of the project.
While acknowledging the exciting and positive results delivered by IRISE, the World Bank representative stressed that these are merely inputs towards a larger objective: ensuring Liberia’s young people can seize the opportunity to get the education they need to unlock their future.
Addressing the students directly, the Country Manager affirmed, “Young people, we believe in you. You embody the bright, prosperous, and peaceful future of the Republic of Liberia. Seize this opportunity to learn, to grow, and to discover who you can become.”
The speech concluded with a poignant excerpt from the poem “Raider of the Treasure Trove” by Lade Wosornu, found in the new Grade 12 English Language and Literature textbook:
But what can be worthy of your life? What dearer then the gems of your dreams — The reason you are here? Always strive to fly flags of joy, and sail up streams, powered by the breeze of love, your course chartered in the ink of compassion. And fling roses wherever you pause Heaven-on-earth, your destination.
The poem’s message, as summarized by the textbook, is that every human being enters the world with the sole aim of unearthing their destiny—their “treasure trove.” “Finding the treasure trove is your job as a learner in this important time in your life. Seize the opportunity by making the most of your education!! Your treasure trove matters for Liberia and the world,” the Country Manager urged, bringing the remarks to a powerful close.
The commissioning marks a significant step forward in Liberia’s commitment to empowering its youth through quality education, laying a crucial foundation for the nation’s future development.