Cestos, Rivercess County – The Kids’ Educational Engagement Project (KEEP) has extended its teacher training program to Rivercess County.
Report by Gerald C. Koinyeneh, gerald.koinyeneh@frontpageafricaonline.com
KEEP is a national charity organization that has been supporting the government’s efforts in promoting reading across the country through several programs, one of which has been teacher training in reading strategies.
According to KEEP Executive Director, Brenda Brewer Moore, it will over the next 12 months conduct series of training with teachers in reading strategies and will utilize the recently revised National Reading Curriculum, targeting 50 teachers.
Madam Moore said one of the best ways of improving the education sector is improving the output of teachers in schools, adding that it was in that direction that the national reading curriculum was recently revised.
She added that over the past few years, the Ministry of Education has been making efforts to not only clean up the system of ghost names, but also ensure that teachers who are placed in the classrooms are qualified and capable of imparting quality education to their students.
Kicking of the series of trainings in Cestos City, Rivercess County’s Superintendent, Bismark Karbiah encouraged the participants to take the training very seriously and apply what they are being taught and refreshed on in the classrooms.
He noted that Rivercess County has been consistently ranked very low on the educational ladder amongst other counties in Liberia and it is through efforts such as these that the situation can change.
During the training, KEEP’s Executive Director, Madam Brenda Brewer Moore told the participants that often teachers attend workshops and after absorbing all of the rich materials presented to help them to improve their teaching skills, particularly in reading; they instead go back to the classrooms and do not apply the new techniques taught them.
She said in order to make the teachers accountable and more focus, KEPP will set a robust monitoring and evaluation system and ensure that teachers work with their DEOs.
Explained Madam More: “The training took place in two parts with teachers placed into two groups: with teachers from Central C2 and Morweh being trained in the second stage whilst teachers from educational districts Central C1, Timbo and Yarnie doing 3 days in Cestos city.
The six-day training covered topics such as “understanding the national curriculum, lesson planning, preventing behavioral problems, Consonant digraph and blends, Designing teaching aid and effective use of the chalk board, etc.”
Meanwhile, one of the Ministry of Education’s master trainers in Reading, Amos D. Doe who also serves as a Regional Coordinators facilitated the workshop.
Mr. Doe commended KEEP for reaching such training to Rivercess County. He indicated that the coming of KEEP is crucial, especially at a time the new national reading curriculum is being introduced.
He observed that the teachers are eager for the training and excited about the new strategies and encouraged other education partners to be strategic in their programs so that there is great impact where direly needed.
Recently, the results of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) were released with only 34% of the total number of students who sat the exam having a successful pass.
Liberia’s education system has seen a downward trend over the past years with repeated low passes in the regional exams.
Many have attributed this to the poor reading skills of the students, lack of qualified teachers in the classrooms, poor school monitoring and limited funding to the sector as a whole.
Madam Brewer told reporters that for the past 3 years, KEEP has been conducting regular teacher training in Reading and this training cycle brings to 80 the number of teachers trained this year in Reading and pedagogy with the first two held in Montserrado and Gbarpolu counties.
