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LEAP Trainers Visit Monrovia to Support Local Teacher Trainers

 Dr. Joan Hamilton and Stephanie Vickers, two members of the LEAP teacher training team, traveled to Liberia in late December to assess the progress of the local teacher training organization that LEAP had fostered. The civil unrest that had contributed to the departure of Charles Taylor had left the city unsettled but hopeful in the wake of a donor conference that pledged hundreds of millions in aid from more than 100 countries. The two Friends of Liberia travelers wanted to gauge what that meant for small local Non-Government Organizations and try to position the teachers’ organization to be funded for their training activities. The following is an account of their trip by Friends of Liberia President and LEAP team leader Stephanie Vickers.

 Dr. Hamilton and I traveled to Liberia to demonstrate Friends of Liberia’s support for the teacher group calling themselves the LEAP Extension Team (LET) and to advocate on behalf of LEAP and LET with international aid organizations and the Ministry of Education.

 Our first goal was to assist our LEAP co-trainers’ establishment of their own local non-governmental organization (NGO). We conducted staff development training for the LET co-trainers.  We networked with the Ministry of Education and other international NGOs (UNICEF, IRC and Mercy Corps) about their goals for education in Liberia.  We met with the U.S. Ambassador John Blaney to see if the US Embassy had any plans to support early childhood education and teacher training. We visited schools whose teachers had been trained in LEAP workshops and we conducted a needs assessment visit to the University of Liberia for The Trustees of Donations for Higher Education in Liberia, a historic U.S. organization dedicated to the support of the University of Liberia.

 Our first goal was accomplished relatively quickly after a year of stop and start negotiations. On Jan. 9, LET became an official accredited local educational NGO. This accreditation enables LET, composed of LEAP workshop Liberian co-trainers, to apply for grants alongside international and local organizations.  The Ministry of Education, in meetings with the Minister and her aides, opened the possibility of an office in the Ministry for the budding teacher-training enterprise.  The co-trainers of LET have selected officers for their NGO and are looking into establishing a board of directors. Ernest Shaw and Theo Frankyu, both principals, are responsible for co-administration of LET.  LET hopes to set up regular workshops in the different counties and continue to support LEAP trained teachers and introduce LEAP to interested teachers.  The administrators will make site visits to schools to lend support and help to teachers.  It is hoped that this summer LET and LEAP will work together to hold a “training of trainers’” workshop and increase the number of co-trainers to work throughout Liberia.

 We met with Minister of Education Dr. Kandakai to discuss her request to use an Early Childhood manual, developed by the LEAP U.S. trainers, for primary teachers in Liberia. Present in our meetings were Deputy Ministers Peter Ben and Marcus Dahn. LEAP has established as a condition to giving the manual to the Ministry that the teachers who receive it must be trained on how to use the manual. Early Childhood teaching concepts are very different from the education experience of most Liberians and even from the commonly held concepts of Liberian teacher training. The Minister was made aware that 130 Liberian school teachers and principals have been trained to teach these concepts to other Liberian teachers since 1999. The Minister said she wanted to print 5,000 copies and had asked UNICEF to provide the printing. She set up a meeting with the education program officers at UNICEF, MOE staff and the LEAP/LET staff. It was agreed initially that UNICEF would print the manuals. UNICEF and MOE asked LEAP to train all primary (ABC classes through third grade) teachers in the use of the manual.

 The Ministry and UNICEF staff asked us to prepare a proposal and budget to conduct such training throughout the country for all schools (government, private and faith-based).  We submitted a budget and proposal to the UNICEF education representatives and to Minister Kandakai.

 A visit with U.S. Ambassador Blaney found him very supportive of the concept but unable to offer any funding for an education project. However, he offered to speak to UNICEF on our behalf.

 Since our return home, UNICEF changed officers and communicated with us that UNICEF does not have the money to fund our proposal. LEAP and Friends of Liberia are well thought of by UNICEF but the head of education for UNICEF in Liberia explained that there is not money to fund this proposal.  We remain in contact in hopes that the financial situation will change in the future.

 Joan Hamilton and I conducted a staff development workshop for the 13 LET co-trainers on the campus of a local seminary.  We spent a week reviewing the concepts of early childhood, language arts, science and math teaching for training other teachers.  The co-trainers had many stories of their successes with our curriculum and methods. They had each participated in other workshops within their schools and communities before the fighting and looting caused schools to be closed last summer. Schools still had not opened in January.  The co-trainers, who are still working as teachers and principals in four counties, set up a schedule to meet and make plans for future workshops in each of their counties.

 We also visited two schools that are privately supported by FOL members in Gardnersville and Johnsonville.  Both schools were very welcoming and made us feel very honored to participate in their school programs and to observe their classrooms.  Johnsonville’s principal, Ernest Shaw, who is also the administrator of the LET organization, had arranged a PTA meeting during our visit.  We were pleased to see LEAP curriculum in action at Johnsonville Elementary-Junior High School.

 We were asked by the Trustees of Donations for Higher Education to make a site visit and conduct an assessment of the University for their Board. We found the university to be badly damaged. Dr. James Kollie, who has since become the acting President of L.U. (?), walked us through the campus and shared a videotape of the looting, which we brought back for the Trustees. We were told that the government soldiers inflicted the worst of the damage and looting the night that former President Taylor left the country.  We met with Dr. Roberts, who was president of LU at the time, and filed his report along with our report and photographs.  The university opened for a reduced session in January, with the promise that students can return for a full-term later this year.

 Our trip, which featured the usual ups and downs of post-war Liberia, was helped a bit by the use of a cell phone, which we left behind for the nascent LET organization. It should help our new NGO better communicate in setting up their workshops and collaborations. It also is a point of contact as they apply for some of the development money pouring into Monrovia.

 It was hopeful to be back and see Liberians beginning again with a sense of hope. Prices are terribly inflated due to the presence of so many international NGOs and aid workers. Their vehicles clog the streets of Monrovia.  We were heartened that the LEAP network of teachers, more than 100 still teaching, is ongoing and growing. Shortly after we left, the Grand Bassa LET co-trainers led by Theo Frankyu and Ernest Shaw held a workshop in Buchanan. It was so well received that the trainers had to turn away 25 teachers who were willing to pay $25 LD for the chance to attend. There was only room for 75. There was no better evidence of the need for LEAP training. We know we have ground-level support, the ability to demonstrate results and a good reputation in teacher training. We hope to find a way to connect the local teacher-training NGO with some of the international funding so that we can give the future leaders of Liberia the educational foundation they will need to rebuild the country.