LONDON—OSI's Education Support Program (ESP), together with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, announced today its contribution to the renewal of the education system in Liberia. OSI's education-related activities in Liberia have placed the private foundation at the forefront of a growing trend in educational development, in which foundations are forming partnerships with governments and traditional bilateral and multilateral donors that move beyond an independent-project approach to provide budget support and technical assistance to governments for policy development and implementation.
OSI's education work in Liberia began in May 2007 when founder George Soros committed $5 million to the Government of Liberia towards the implementation of the Liberia Primary Education Recovery Program. These private funds were pooled with $12 million from the Dutch government to create a unique public-private partnership in international education. The Liberia Education Pooled Fund was launched in May 2008 under the leadership of UNICEF, the lead education partner in Liberia which serves as the custodian of the Fund.
In addition to the financial contribution from the foundation, the Education Support Program is supporting the Ministry of Education with long-term technical assistance and professional development for teachers and working to develop the capacity of civil society coalitions and community-based literacy initiatives. In July 2007, OSI began working with 80 teachers based in Monrovia through the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking (RWCT) program, which promotes the use of active learning and critical thinking methodologies. Many of these teachers have now completed the full cycle of the training of trainers model and are establishing an national association that will continue to promote the methodology across classrooms in Liberia.
At the request of the Ministry of Education, the RWCT methodology has been adapted to support the Liberia Teacher Training Project (LTTP), a $15 million USAID-funded project responsible for rebuilding the primary education teacher training system. To date, ESP has worked with the 90 pre-service and in-service teacher trainers involved in this program to improve their classroom practice. ESP has also contributed to the development of the national teacher standards as well as the teacher training curriculum for the primary level.
As ESP embarks on its second year of engagement in Liberia's education recovery efforts, the goal is to remain flexible and responsive to the needs and priorities of both the Ministry of Education and other education development partners, increase support for civil society coalitions and the National Teachers Association of Liberia, and coordinate with other OSI Network Programs active in Liberia.