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Success Story
A new approach to
teaching and to training
teachers revives
Liberia’s education
system
First Post-War Teachers Graduate
Photo: CNFA\ Yuri Seleznev
New teachers beam with pride on
Graduation Day in June 2009 at Kakata
Rural Teaching Trainer Institute.
“The aim is to move away
from the old ways of
teaching. Hopefully more
effort can go into recruiting
women,” said Stanley
Feika, Kakata Rural Teacher
Training Institute Class of
2009, student president.
While assessing the status of teacher training in Liberia, USAID
found three badly war-damaged Rural Teacher Training Institutes
in Kakata, Zorzor, and Webbo. None were fully operational and
the number of staff was virtually non-existent. None had functioned
as operational institutions delivering "C" certificates for elementary
school teacher training for almost two decades.
In 2007, USAID infrastructure renovation activities began at the
three campuses. USAID also worked with the Ministry of Education
to develop a set of professional standards for the Liberian teacher
and to guide curriculum development in teacher education. By mid-
2008, USAID and the Liberian Ministry of Education had developed
a national certifi cate curriculum for primary teachers that would
serve both pre- and in-service teachers.
Recruitment and training of staff and students for the 2008-2009
academic year residential programs began. Sixteen of the more
than 400 candidates were found in a refugee camp in Ghana. All
faculty received up to eight intensive weeks of training in the new
curriculum.
In July 2009, the Rural Teacher Training Institutes graduated the
first post-war elementary level teacher trainees. Four hundred and
forty nine trainees earned the "C" Certifi cate in the presence of the
country’s President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
New cohorts of trainees have been recruited for the 2009-2010
year: 548 trainees have initiated pre-service training, and 632
teachers have begun in-service training.
Teaching in Liberia is a predominantly male-dominated profession.
Family care, income-earning obligations, and traditional cultural
constraints have limited women’s involvement in teaching. A
gender-focused orientation of county and district-based education
offi cers who do trainee recruitment for the teacher trainings, as well
as links with local women's organizations have helped increased
women’s participation, albeit slowly. Female teacher trainees rose
from 8% in the first year to 15% in the 2009-10 academic year.
Kakata Rural Teacher Training Institute’s 2009 class president
Stanley Feika said he hopes more female teachers can be trained
in Liberia. “The aim is to move away from the old ways of teaching.
Hopefully more effort also can go into recruiting women,” he said.
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