W3H TC£ -national refxvf ^(agr^CUé) '3 (jL. r. ÍKK INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION Forty-fourth Session, Geneva, 1994 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION NATIONAL REPORT EROM LIBERIA BY D.E.S. KANDAKAI AND J.A.L. TARLOWOH MONROVIA - LIBERIA SEPTEMBER 1994 UNESCO-E.LE. GENÈVE CONTENTS 2.0 INTRODUCTION 1 2.1 INNOVATIONS AND IMPORTANT CHANGES 2 2.2 NEW DIRECTIONS OP EDUCATIONAL POLICY r. 10 2.3 THE STRUCTURE, CONTENTS AND METHODS OF EDUCATION 40 2.4 NONFORMAL EDUCATION 60 2.5 PRE-SERVICE AND IN-SERVICE TEACHER TRAINING 67 2.6 EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH 84 2.7 INTERNATIONAL, REGIONAL AND BILATERAL CO-OPERATION IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION 99 2.8 PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED AND FUTURE PROSPECTS 106 2.9 EDUCATION FOR INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING 115 2 INNOVATIONS AND IMPORTANT CHANGES; INTRODUCTION: Innovations, trends or changes are often difficult to recognize or describe. There is a tendency for people to verbalize newer procedures more than to see their existence in actual situations. For example, in Education, new ideas may become evident in the thinking of school teachers which are sometimes not put into the right direction or in actual classroom situations. However, innovations or newer trends as practices do not exist in a vacuum; rather they reflect older practices. An overview of the development of education in Liberia focuses on several factors which have influenced its general school system: 1. the early indigenous social institution 2. the early exposure to formal western education 3. the more formal or conventional education, and 4. the revised instructional program (curriculum) to respond to the needs of the people. Although Liberia's system of education has been plagued with slow development its instructional programs and innovations attempted at various levels and stages of national life are attempts by the system to relatively respond to the needs of society, based on the national goals, policies and philosophies of each period. That which seems like a complex system of education today is the infusion of educational practices and influences of various factors identified at the various stages of our national development. CURRICULUM REVISION AND DEVELOPMENT: Since 1970 the ministry has been involved in revising the elementary and secondary school curricula for the curricula to: 1. meet the needs of Liberia; 2. be flexible to meet the individual needs and aptitudes of pupils and the varying needs of our society in its varied settings. In October 1971, a National Conference was held. It concerned itself with the existing issues and problems confronting the educational system and the effect of the 3 implementation of a new curriculum. These included articulation between the various institutional levels; the time table for the production of syllabi, curriculum guides and phased implementation of the }ievjr curriculum. In January 1973, the Ministry of Education appointed a Curriculum Coordination Committee (10 members) consisting of administrators and classroom teachers, Ministry of Education officials and University personnel. Eleven teams were established to handle certain aspects of the curriculum. Each team was expected to prepare syllabi, teacher's guides and instructional materials; try these out in schools and orientate teachers who would be using these materials. The present K - 12 National School Curriculum which was placed in schools in 19Ë0 was developed wibh the intent of major directions of reform in line with national policy: - Liberian orientation, to reflect closer societal needs, resources and values; - Liberian curriculum context, with a strengthened Liberian environmental content; - Broad-based, with needed diversification to cater to the National and local variations; - Functional schooling, for the purpose of bringing in practical, vocational/technical subject content at different levels; - National Norms, to determine the suitability of education program at each stage; - Nation-wide improvements and future orientation, enabling the system to respond to changes and allow the learners to look forward and prepare for the future; and - Continuing education, and the promotion of desirable social, moral and ethical values. In the light of the indicated direction of reform the role of education itself was expected to change, with the full implementation of this new curriculum¿¡ The expected changed role and goals of education were not, however, achieved due to the lack of the major inputs in the curriculum implementation/transmission process, including trained teachers, suitable materials, required evaluation methods and instructional practices. / 4 THE ACCELERATED CURRICULUM EXPERIMENT PROJECT (ACE): Because of a rather unusual feature of the Liberian educational system - the diapaHty 1ft ite age-grade structure - it became necessary fpr the Ministry of Education, through the Bureau of Planning and Research in cooperation with W.V.S. Tubman Teachers College of the University of Liberia, to embark pn a pilot project involving an accelerated curriculum. Because pf the adverse age grade trend, approximately three fourths of Lho elementary school seats were occupied by pver-age i'Upils, who despite their ability to absorb lessons quii-kly and their desire to learn, were compelled to romain in Lhe lock-step, graded school system and proceed at a slow pace. The project's objectives, therefore, were Lo undertake a research study involving an accelerated curriculum which included chiefly the priority subjects - English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies; and prpvide individualized instruction, as much as possibler Started in August 1971, the ACE project being conducted in 10 selected elementary schools was distributed in five of the nine counties. Each of the schools conducted an experimental class of 20 over-age pupils, with gradual increase in the pupil teacher ratio. Because" of the innovative nature of the program, it was absolutely necessary that the teachers Involved be thoroughly trained and properly supervised in the new techniques. To this end, a month-long workshop ^ras held with them in January each year, during the long vacation of the school year. The ACE project was a three-year experimental project, hence, it was planned that at the end of 19*74 the progress of the entire experiment would be evaluated. If the abbreviated length of time was favorable as well as economical, considering the objectives to be achieved, the experience, procedures.and methods would be gradually integrated into the school system. This was done firstly by introducing the accelerated curriculum method in the various teacher training programs, and secondly, where possible, by separating the regular and over-age pupils in different classrooms for instruction. 5 Despite the many financial problems which the project faced, its results, in terms of objective and purpose, showed remarkable success. Reports indicated that 80% of the students who scored low in the ACE diagnostic test before they entered the program and would have presumably failed and repeated their classes in the regular school, showed marked academic improvement and were promoted to the next class within a short period of one semester exposure to the innovative instruction. IMPROVING THE QUALITY QF (RURAL) ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS: The Liberian Government, through the Ministry of Education with the assistance of UNESCO, UNICEF, and the U.S. Peace Corps, in 1971 embarked on a five-year rural primary teacher training project aimed at developing a new breed of teacher who would not only impart knowledge, but also become a community leader. An important aspect of a cluster of other activities included: 1. The improvement of the physical facilities of 200 rural schools so as to provide a suitable atmosphere for the teacher; 2. Integrated development in the communities in which th'ese schools are located through input from various ministries of Government such as Agricultural extension service (Ministry of Agriculture), health facilities (Ministry of Health), provision of public utilities, such as lights (Public Utilities Authority now Liberia Electricity Corppration), the construction of proper access roads (Ministry of Public Works), and p'drp drinking water through wells (Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Urban Reconstruction now Ministry of Internal Affairs). This was an innovative, integrated and coordinated approach to development which fitted into Government's plans for rural/regional development- In order to qualify as a project school, a school must have carried all six elementary grades, have at least six classrooms, be located in a community Where other agencies of Government were already established or proposed to establish development projects - health, agriculture or road projects, and be located not more than five miles off a main or link road* 6 Improving, physical facilities included the construction of an annex building to an existing school building consisting of three additional rooms for manual arts and home economics, which were to be in the elementary school curriculum, and a Cafeteria - Kitchen- Between 1971 and 1973, 80 annexes were completed, manual arts and home economics teachers were trained and given ip.~eevvice training. V. TEXTBOOKS AND INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT: Securing textbooks suitable for our social and econPmic setting in sufficient quantities for the increasing enrollment in our schools, is a problem1 of grave concern which undermines the quality and effectiveness of the educational program. In addition,