School leavers in Liberia recorded a mass fail mark when they all failed to pass a university entrance exam.

Liberia’s education minister said she found it hard to believe that not a single candidate from 25,000 students passed the admission test to the University of Liberia, one of two state-run universities.

The students lacked enthusiasm and did not have a basic grasp of English, a university official said.

Liberia is recovering from a brutal civil war that ended a decade ago.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel peace laureate, recently acknowledged that the education system was still “in a mess”, and much needed to be done to improve it.

But this is the first time that every single student who took the exam, paying a fee of $25 (£16), has failed.

It means that the overcrowded university will not have any new first-year students when it reopens next month for the academic year.

Education Minister Etmonia David-Tarpeh told the BBC she would meet university officials to discuss the results.

‘I know there are a lot of weaknesses in the schools but for a whole group of people to take exams and every single one of them to fail, I have my doubts about that,’ she said.

‘It’s like mass murder. These are not just schools that will give people grades. I’d really like to see the results of the students.’

•Credit (text only): Daily Mail UK. •Photo shows common entrance exam hall cut no the one referred to in story.