Liberia wants children in school, not on street corners

Seven-year-old Assatou has been selling grilled plantains at a busy junction on the outskirts of the Liberian capital, Monrovia, for two years. “My family can't afford to send me to school,” she says with a sigh. “So I learned how to cook plantain instead.” Under a new education policy, parents or guardians of children like Assatou will soon face fines or even be arrested for allowing their children to sell in the streets during school hours. Parents say they would much rather put their children in school than to work, but they have no choice. “Children are not breadwinners,” said Hawa Gol Kotchi, deputy minister of education for information. “They should be in school, not working on the street.” Gol Kotchi said the move was part of a drive to meet a Millennium Development Goal to have all children enrolled in school by 2015.