School choice and parental preferences in a poor area of Monrovia

This household survey was conducted in a slum of Monrovia, Liberia. It found 72% of children aged 6-14 were in private school, 9.1% in government school and 18.8% out of school. Half of children aged 3-5 (i.e. below compulsory school age) were enrolled in schools. The research did not find any evidence that girls were more likely to be out of school than boys or that families differentially choose to send their boys to school in preference to their girls. Whatever school their children attended, the educational decision makers generally viewed the private schools more favourably than the government alternative.