2023 Bridge Liberia Media Mentions

Bridge Liberia Partners with National Government To Commemorate International Women’s Day

Mar7,2023

MONROVIA – Scores of Liberia women and men on March 3, 2023, commemorated International Women’s Day, a day set aside by the United Nations to celebrate women’s achievements and raise awareness about gender inequality and increase support for women globally

Even though an early celebration before the recognized March 8, women from diverse backgrounds gathered to pay homage to Liberian Women that are breaking the glass ceiling and also to men supporting them

This year’s International Women’s Day is celebrated under the global theme: “DigitAAL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality” with a local theme, “Innovating with Technology to promote Gender Equality” a theme that sits right within the Bridge Liberia’s teaching model, ensuring teachers use technology in the classroom as a teaching tool

This model of teaching and learning by the Liberian Government’s technical partner Bridge Liberia, has made teaching easier and more interesting for women teachers who take on other responsibilities before and after school hours.

The teacher tablets are loaded with detailed lesson plans and instructions for teachers to deliver to students daily while feeding back to school supervisors to track the teacher’s activity and attendance and ensure they are sticking to the lesson plans.

Teaching, which is considered one of the most important professions in the world, comes with so many challenges, especially for women teachers,

who are caught between family caregiving and their profession.

Kweabe A. Tobgah a teacher from Dwazon Public School explains how she now has more time to take care of her children and run other errands to help her family

“Instead of sitting at home for long hours after school to plan lessons and do additional research, like I used to do before, with this teaching technology I now have more time to do a small business to support my family with additional income, because the lessons are already planned We now focus on delivery and presentation ”

Christiana David from the Intouch Public School further revealed that the teaching technology has made her profession more interesting, because it is not only easier, it is also fun to be in the classroom

This milestone achievement in the education sector has not only improved test scores and learning for

students, but it is also contributing to the performance of women teachers in the classrooms at Bridge Liberia supported schools.

The Liberian Government in 2016, began a revolution to fix the country’s education system which was broken as the result of several years of conflict One of those steps was the introduction of the Liberian Education Advancement Program (LEAP) The LEAP Program currently has four education providers with Bridge Liberia being the biggest technical partner in the program

LEAP is delivering tuition-free primary education throughout Liberia from early childhood education through grade nine and improving learning gains for students in government schools

Women teachers stand at 25% of the total teachers in government schools supported by Bridge Liberia

These women indeed understand that technology is vital for gender equality and empowerment, which is why they appreciate the use of teaching technology in the classrooms

Liberia: “Invest In People, Prioritize Education,” A Learning Necessity

Jan24,2023

January 24 is the UN’s International Day of Education The theme for 2023 is “Invest in people, prioritise education ” UNESCO, the UN’s education arm, makes a compelling case for such investment:

“Without inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong opportunities for all, countries will not succeed in achieving gender equality and breaking the cycle of poverty that is leaving millions of children, youth and adults behind ”

Governments are already investing vast sums of money in education Although the average for sub-Saharan Africa is lower at 3 4% – below the global average of 4 3% – international donors also contribute very large sums The Global Partnership for Education invests funds raised from donor countries such as the US and UK In total, GPE has spent more than $5 7 billion of donor funding on education across sub-Saharan Africa.

But despite such levels of government and international spending, education outcomes are at crisis levels.

The World Bank’s most recent update estimates that 89% of ten-year-olds in the region cannot read a simple sentence.

The Covid pandemic and associated school closures are not to blame. “Learning poverty was very high even before the pandemic,” says the Bank. Nor is a lack of enrollment. 90% of primary age children attend school in low and middle income countries.

These grim statistics make clear that prioritizing education is not enough What must be prioritized is learning

Increasingly, visionary leaders across Africa are changing the way they spend money on education, by investing in outcomes – clear learning gains for their students and opening the sectors for more partnerships in education

In Liberia, the Government has leveraged its flagship education Program; LEAP to improve learning gains for students in government schools as a means of addressing the country’s learning crisis

LEAP, is the Liberia Education Advancement Program, an innovative education partnership that came into existence in 2016, currently supporting nearly 500 public schools across Liberia’s fifteen counties.

The multi-partnership educational model designed by the Liberian Government delivers 100% tuition-free primary education throughout Liberia from early childhood education through Grade 9.

Government’s largest technical partner in the LEAP Program; Bridge Liberia, ensures every teacher receives comprehensive instructional guidance for every lesson, based upon cutting edge pedagogical research with a technological approach

The technology enables world-class quality lessons, specifically designed to maximize learning, to be delivered by all teachers

It also provides real-time monitoring from every classroom in every school supported by Bridge Liberia

Government education officers can track not only students’ performance, but a whole range of other crucial indicators that support learning gains.

This also helps to reduce absenteeism, truancies, and even teachers not coming, by remotely monitoring them and seeing who is teaching what and the quality of teaching across primary schools.

The results of all these interventions are excellent

The teaching methods underpinning the Liberian Government’s technical education partner; Bridge Liberia and all other programs supported by NewGlobe have been independently studied in Kenya by a team led by Professor Michael Kremer, Nobel Prize winner for Economics in 2019

It reported that students taught using the methods made some of the biggest learning gains ever found in such a study

On International Day of Education, we should be clear that investment which drives-up learning and transforms outcomes for students must be our priority. We also need to understand that if it can be achieved, the gains across Africa and the whole world will be transformational too.

Honors Government Technical Education Partner Bridge Liberia

14thDecember,2022

The Liberia National Students Union, the umbrella organization responsible for advocating and protecting the rights of all students in Liberia has honored Bridge Liberia in recognition of its enormous contributions to the education sector

Bridge Liberia is the Liberian Government’s technical partner under the Liberia Education Advancement Program (LEAP), which is improving learning gains and transforming the country’s primary education sector

LINSU President Mohammed Ghandi Kamara during the honoring ceremony disclosed how pleased the student group is with the partnership Bridge has with the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of education.

Gandhi mentioned the improvement in learning at government schools under the LEAP Program, is a major milestone that is worth commending by all wellmeaning supporters of education.

Students under the LEAP Program supported by Bridge Liberia recorded a 94% pass rate at the just-ended 2021/2022 Liberia Primary School Certificate Examination

This milestone achievement, according to the LINSU President, speaks to the transformative works taking place at these government schools under the LEAP program supported by the government’s technical partner; Bridge Liberia

Gandhi further stated that the leadership of the Liberia National Student Union is currently in the process of rebranding the student group to a more viable organization that will implement its core function of advocating for the students of Liberia.

According to him, LINSU’s recognition of Bridge Liberia for its contribution to the development of students in Liberia should spark the government’s education partner to go beyond its core functions and do more to improve the already challenged education sector

Bridge Liberia Managing Director receiving the honors thanked LINSU for following the entire LEAP Program and recognizing the work partners like Bridge are doing to support the over 70,000 students at government primary schools

Gbovadeh Gbilia explained that he is specifically gratified that an organization that is in the business of advocating for students would recognize the work of education partners that are directly supporting students across the country.

20thNovember,2022

Major education projects, skills development and the upsurge in investments leveraging technology for education were the main focus of Africa’s number one high-level ministerial forum Innovation Africa from the 16th to 18th November 2022 in Lusaka, Zambia This 10th anniversary edition of the summit was held under the patronage of the Government of the Republic of Zambia and led by the President, Mr Hakainde Hichilema

Hundreds of government ministers and officials traveled across the continent to attend the summit including the Liberian Minister of Education, Hon Prof Ansu Sonii alongside Assistant Education Minister for Early Childhood Development, Thelma

Nimmo

This high-level Liberian delegation along with counterparts from at least 24 other African countries engaged with other stakeholders on topics key to the education agenda of the summit

Among the topics covered at Innovation Africa was digital transformation across Africa’s education sector, teacher training, digital strategies for school leaders, technology innovation and solutions for improving school connectivity and curriculum reforms

The focus on education in this year’s event is pivotal to the learning poverty crisis currently faced in Africa and beyond A situation so serious it is a key focus of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, particularly in the area of foundational learning, main theme of The Education Summit (TES) ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2022 culminating in UNICEF leading a new Call to action on education.

The Innovation Africa summit education rich agenda provides an opportunity for African countries to fulfill this call to action, which is key as the learning poverty has become even more pronounced in post pandemic Africa

Case in point, our Liberian delegation is attending this conference against a backdrop of Liberia being one of the countries in the world with the highest levels of dropped-out school children, with an estimated 15 percent not in class Meanwhile, just over 54 percent of children complete primary education (UNICEF) According to an ONCHA Report, over 15,000 Liberian children were in the streets performing different forms of child labor, from street hawking to bus conductors among others The case is even worse for children in early childhood Under a third of 3-to-5 year-olds benefit from early childhood education (ECE), and overage enrollment is common Nearly 50 percent of students enrolled in ECE are 6 years of age or above Many learners start ECE late and subsequently do not enter primary school until they are 8 to 10 years old, according to UNICEF on the situation of Liberia Children Report

Liberia is not alone in this situation, as a result of the worst shock to education and learning in recorded history, learning poverty has increased by a third in low- and middle-income countries, with an estimated 70% of 10-year-olds unable to understand a simple written text, according to a new report published by the World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, UK government Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), USAID, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This rate was 57% before the pandemic, but now the learning crisis has deepened.

This generation of students now risks losing $21 trillion in potential lifetime earnings in present value, or the equivalent of 17% of today’s global GDP, up from the $17 trillion estimated in 2021

This report, The State of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update also tasks countries on the need to concentrate their efforts on the most cost-effective approaches to tackle learning poverty It states that these interventions must be implemented as part of a national learning recovery program that can also serve as a springboard for building more effective, equitable, and resilient education systems Dr Benjamin Piper, Director of Global Education, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was quoted as saying “ we have solutions that can work at scale and in government systems Committing to substantial learning recovery programs is a start, but the composition of those programs matter: measure learning outcomes, but also invest in improving instruction through structured pedagogy ”

In Liberia, based on these suggestions, there are bright glimmers of hope for effective scalable education transformation as seen through the Liberia Education Advancement Program (LEAP), with Bridge Liberia as the Government of Liberia’s largest partner in the program Through LEAP, the Governments of Liberia have committed to driving up standards and outcomes across the education systems, with measured gains in literacy and numeracy in weeks

This report, The State of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update also tasks countries on the need to concentrate their efforts on the most cost-effective approaches to tackle learning poverty It states that these interventions must be implemented as part of a national learning recovery program that can also serve as a springboard for building more effective, equitable, and resilient education systems Dr Benjamin Piper, Director of Global Education, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was quoted as saying “…we have solutions that can work at scale and in government systems. Committing to substantial learning recovery programs is a start, but the composition of those programs matter: measure learning outcomes, but also invest in improving instruction through structured pedagogy…”

In Liberia, based on these suggestions, there are bright glimmers of hope for effective scalable education transformation as seen through the Liberia Education Advancement Program (LEAP), with Bridge Liberia as the Government of Liberia’s largest partner in the program Through LEAP, the Governments of Liberia have committed to driving up standards and outcomes across the education systems, with measured gains in literacy and numeracy in weeks

The program is supported by datadriven technology solutions in partnership with NewGlobe, a social enterprise which supports national and state governments by creating powerful technology-enabled education systems

Bridge Liberia is currently supporting over 300 public primary schools and improving learning outcomes through system transformation for over 75,000 students in Liberia The impact of this support shows in numerous randomized control studies conducted to measure the impact of the program The Learning in Liberia Year 3 study shows that eighty-one percent of students who joined a Bridge Liberia supported school under the LEAP program in the first grade and have now spent 2½ years in a Bridge Liberia supported classroom are proficient or basic readers; compared to only 33% of students in traditional public schools.

Bridge Liberia focuses on teacher training and leverages technology to empower teachers and improve children’s learning outcomes, through intensive training, ongoing support, scientifically-based digital teacher guides, positive classroom management techniques and realtime monitoring of lessons. The combination of 19 Nobel Prize winning professor Michael Kremer. The Kremer Study finds that NewGlobe methods deliver unequivocal major learning gains across every academic year in NewGlobe-supported schools, compared with other schools These are particularly large in the “key grades” for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN), primary classes One and Two Kremer and his coauthors found that students in early childhood years supported by NewGlobe received the equivalent of an additional year and a half of learning in two years

Liberia: Bridge Liberia Trains Government Education Officers for Effective Schools Monitoring

15thNovember,2022

Government Education Officers are currently undergoing training to enable them to efficiently monitor teachers, principals, and other school leaders at Bridge Liberia-supported schools across the country

The training, which is divided into 3 clusters, targets Government County and District Education Officers who have a direct mandate to ensure quality assurance at these schools

The Bridge Liberia education model has monitoring and supervision at its core with both human and technology delivering on this task.

The social enterprise, supporting the Liberian Education sector provides a teaching tablet to all teachers and school administrators, which serves as a monitoring device for attendance and lesson delivery in addition to school supervisors who conduct daily monitoring at these schools

Teachers and school leaders supported by Bridge Liberia are trained in specific classroom management techniques, praise, and technologybased teaching methods to improve teaching and learning in schools across the country, a digital approach supported by the government to improve learning in public schools.

Education Officers monitoring these schools will have a deeper understanding of the various applications used to track the performance of teachers, principals, and other school leaders in the Bridge Liberia ecosystem Education Officers will now understand how learning should be conducted at all Bridge Liberia-managed schools and know what to look out for when holding school leaders accountable for attendance, and lesson delivery, among other key performance indicators that improve learning.

Bridge Liberia supported students deliver academic excellence at 2021/2022 Liberia Primary School

Certificate Exam- 94% passing rate

7thNovember,2022

In 2016, when the Liberian Government through the Ministry of Education announced Partnership Schools for Liberia (PSL), now known as the Liberia Education Advancement Program (LEAP) an innovative public private partnership, the goal was to strategically transform the primary public education system and improve learning gains for the students covered under the program Now in its 7th year, the program has four education providers supporting the Government education agenda in all of Liberia’s 15 counties

To measure the impact of the program, multiple independent studies have been conducted since the inception of the LEAP Program.

Bridge Liberia, the Government’s largest partner in the LEAP Program, supporting over 300 Government public primary schools has participated in all these independent studies.

The results of these independent studies prove statistically significant learning gains for the students in the program and the efficacy of the Government’s approach, thus validating the impact of the LEAP Program and Bridge Liberia intervention in Liberia’s education sector.

One of the studies showed that Bridge Liberia students gained 2 5 years of additional learning after 3 years with Bridge Liberia, and another showed that 81% of Bridge Liberia students are proficient or basic readers,versus only 33% of students in traditional public schools

These independent studies are backed by the performance of students sitting the Liberia Primary School Certificate Examination (LPSCE), a model of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) Exam for third and sixth graders in Liberia

The pilot for the exam launched in 2021 and has been administered to third and sixth graders every year in four subjects; Language Arts, Mathematics, General Science, and Social Studies

The 2021/2022 edition of the examination saw students from Bridge Liberia supported schools performing excellently with 94% passing rate of the total students that sat the examination

A total of 2,256 students from Bridge Liberia supported schools sat the exam during the 2021/2022 sitting, with a whooping 2127 students passing Female students constitute 950 while male students make up 1,177 of the total number

These results are clear evidence that Bridge Liberia is delivering far beyond the set government’s goals and radically shifting education in Liberia by leveraging technology and innovation to tremendously accelerate student learning outcomes in the government schools it supports

With the growing evidence about the unprecedented scale of the learning crisis and an increasingly public acknowledgement by leaders that the 2030 SDG-4 goal – the provision of quality education for all by 2030 – will not be met

Such learning gains for students especially in low income communities and government schools can’t be understated; this is celebratory news for Liberia

Such results are in contrast to the recently published World Bank Report on Education with the Bank drawing down on the achievement of its goal of reducing learning poverty

Indeed, learning poverty can be reduced with educational providers like Bridge Liberia and its umbrella organization NewGlobe supporting governments with programs designed to achieve learning outcomes amidst the most challenging circumstances for public school students.

Bridge Liberia Begins Distribution of Reading and Other Learning Materials at Supported Schools

25thOctober2022

The management of Bridge Liberia has begun the distribution of reading and other learning materials for the current academic year to schools under its management

The social enterprise which is supporting over three hundred Government Schools provides materials that are needed to aid learning on a daily basis in its supported schools

Every semester, textbooks, sanitary materials and all stationery to aid the operation of these schools are distributed across the fifteen counties where Bridge Liberia has operations. John P. Mitchell School in Margibi County is amongst the first batch for distribution.

The Principal, Madam Blakie Doe, who was excited to receive the materials on behalf of her school, said,

“I’m particularly excited because all my students can now have their own reading materials and follow the lessons as the teacher presents.”

The model of teaching in Bridge Liberia supported schools, calls for each student to have his or her own text, practice and homework book during classroom sections

This way it is easier to follow through lesson presentations and students can independently practice what has been taught

The textbooks provided by Bridge Liberia to its supported schools have contributed to significant improvement in reading among its students with data available to prove this

In Bridge Liberia’s first year of operation, a Learning in Liberia Report showed that students at Bridge Liberia-supported schools could read 7 more words per minute and answer 6% more questions correctly about the story they just read

Further, 17% of Bridge-supported public school second graders met reading fluency benchmarks for the first time, compared to only 4% of second graders at traditional public schools

At the end of the first year, a randomized control trial by the Center for Global Development found Bridgesupported students had reading gains equivalent to a whole additional year of schooling when compared to other government schools

The provision of sanitary materials and stationery by Bridge Liberia also reduces the burden of the lack of necessary items for the smooth running of these schools

Liberia: Bridge Liberia supports students Forming Part of the National Girls Summit in Commemoration of the Int’l Day of the Girl Child

TAs the world commemorates the International Day of the Girl Child, female students at Bridge Liberia supported Schools on Monday October 10 joined other adolescent girls in Monrovia to participate in a one day girls summit and panel discussion

Organised by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, the summit and panel discussion focused on the growth and development of the girl child in Liberia

Over 120 adolescent girls gathered at the Monrovia City Hall to discuss several issues including career choices, adolescent challenges, substance abuse among others The students also used the event to network with expert presenters who deliberated on these topics

Such networking and extra curricular activity supports student development outside of the classroom, in addition to the learning that takes place in the classroom Core curriculum activities as it is described at Bridge for students forms part of the learning and development for students in the Bridge Liberia ecosystem.

This year, the world is celebrating International Day of the Girl Child under the theme, ”our time is now,-our rights, our future”, a time when global education stakeholders are also calling for equity in education

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said at the recently held Transforming Education Summit, “when girls and women have an equal opportunity to learn – and when education supports gender equality for all – communities and societies prosper ”

This statement stands at the core of Bridge Liberia principles for equity in education

Bridge Liberia, which is the largest partner in the Liberia Education Advancement Program under the Ministry of Education, is empowering a new generation of confident and successful girls by significantly improving learning outcomes for them

Bridge supported teachers are trained to call on both boys and girls in the classroom

As fewer girls than boys usually tend to volunteer in class, teachers are trained to practice what is known as cold calling to ensure equal participation

Professional development and classroom management techniques focus on encouraging girls to be leaders in and out of the classroom All of these interventions and principles have yielded positive results for girls in the Bridge ecosystem

Fifth-grade girls’ average performance on reading fluency increased by more than 27 words per minute Once lagging by 10 words per minute, girls now outperform boys

According to a recent study conducted by 2019 Nobel Prize winner Michael Kremer and a team under one of NewGlobe’s Programs in Kenya, girls make the same leap in learning as boys

This methodology is the same one used at Bridge Liberia-supported schools. As NewGlobe is Bridge Liberia’s technical partner.

LIBERIA: Giving girls their time, rights and future, begins with educating them

11thOctober2022

World leaders at the UN Transforming Education Summit last month received a very clear message on equality

Without it, education cannot be transformed “We all use the word transformative a lot – not only at this historic Summit But in this case, the evidence is undeniable Gender equality is transformative,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told the Summit. “When girls and women have an equal opportunity to learn – and when education supports gender equality for all – communities and societies prosper.”

There is a long way to go. According to UNESCO, 129 million girls around the world are out of school, including 32 million of primary school age. Just under half of the countries have achieved gender parity in primary education.

This year’s UN International Day of the Girl Child has the theme “Our time is now our rights, our future.” Urgency is essential The covid pandemic and long school closures increased global levels of learning poverty Only about 35% of children worldwide can read a simple sentence at the age of 10 In subSaharan Africa, that figure is just 10%

Even when schools reopened, girls were less likely to return to education than boys As many as 11 million didn’t go back to school Yet it is clear – as Catherine Russell affirmed – that educating girls benefits not just them, but their societies and entire nations

One lead later

The cost of girls failing to complete education is between US$15 trillion and US$30 trillion in lost lifetime productivity and earnings for countries, estimates the World Bank

Sadly it is already clear that the Strategic Development Goal of providing quality education to all by 2030 – SDG4 – will be missed The Bank’s latest report predicts SDG1 –the goal of ending extreme poverty –is also unlikely to be achieved, unless there is an urgent refocus on key investments, including education

“Over the next decade, investing in better health and education will be crucial for developing economies

Governments will need to concentrate their resources on building human capital and maximizing growth,” says Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s Chief Economist

The consequences of underinvestment in education and the related halt in reductions of global poverty will be particularly tough for women and girls, already more likely to be poor At least 244 million women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa live in extreme poverty

But visionary governments in the Global South are increasingly finding a way to invest in transforming their state education systems, at speed and at scale, in partnership with NewGlobe And doing so is raising the attainment – and life chances – of girls

There is no argument that girls’ education is important In Liberia, a girl is more likely to be married by 18 years old than to know how to read NewGlobe’s support for the Liberian government’s LEAP program – as Bridge Liberia we are the biggest partners – includes ensuring girls have the same opportunities to learn and thrive as boys

Unlike in many public school systems, pregnant girls are allowed and encouraged to stay in Bridge Liberia schools and young first-time mothers are actively encouraged to return to classrooms by school and community leaders

As a result of the Ministry of Education program in Bridge Liberiasupported schools, 5th-grade girls’ average performance on reading fluency increased by more than 27 words per minute Once lagging by 10 words per minute, girls now outperform boys

The learning methods underpinning all NewGlobe’s programs, which is Bridge Liberia technical partner, have been independently studied in Kenya by an academic team led by Professor Michael Kremer, the Nobel Prize-winning economist

Their results found learning gains

“among the largest in the international education literature,” with primary students taught using the NewGlobe methods nearly a year of learning ahead of their counterparts in other schools after just two years

Crucially, the learning gains were equally large for girls and boys The findings contrast with established research which shows girls in SubSaharan Africa are consistently disadvantaged in learning, with lower literacy rates than boys even when both have the same educational attainment.

Bridge Liberia support for transformative education programs uses an approach that has gender parity built into its design

Gender-sensitive school management includes ensuring that girls are given school leadership roles and equal learning opportunities as boys Teachers are trained to call on both boys and girls in the classroom

As fewer girls than boys usually volunteer, teachers are trained to practice more cold calling to ensure equal participation

As signatories to the Women’s Empowerment Principles, we are committed to gender equality in the workplace as well Female teachers and school leaders provide role models within the classroom and community

Girls take up at least as many positions of responsibility in schools as boys The state and national governments transforming their public education programs with the support of NewGlobe know that success depends on transforming learning outcomes for girls as well as boys

If the global aims of the Transforming Education Summit are to be achieved, more leaders must do the same Only then will girls have their time, their rights, and their future

TEACHERS ARE AT THE FOREFRONT OF EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION – CAPACITY BUILDING IS KEY

Teaching is the most important job in the world The quality of any nation’s education cannot exceed the quality of its educators. Yet, in many low and middle income countries the teaching profession is in critical condition

UNESCO estimates a shortfall in teachers in sub-Saharan Africa alone of 15 million Worse, those teachers struggling to help their students have little or no support “Many teachers do not have access to quality training and continuous professional development throughout their careers,” says UNESCO

Compounding all this is the sad truth that many teachers themselves can often struggle with the content they are teaching Literacy and numeracy can be a challenge The outcome is predictable Nearly 90% of children around the world go to primary school But only about 35% can read a simple sentence at the age of 10 In sub-Saharan Africa only 10% can Hundreds of millions of children are in school, but not learning

So this year’s World Teachers’ Day on October 5th is more than a day to celebrate hardworking and dedicated teachers It’s also a vital opportunity to rethink the way ahead, to shine light on the ideas and programs that are working in support of great teachers and great teaching

As this year’s theme says: “The transformation of education begins with teachers ” Governments committed to transforming their public education systems understand this, and increasingly visionary leaders in the Global South are showing that the way to transforming learning outcomes for their students begins with transforming training and support for their teachers.

The Liberian Government’s flagship education program the Liberia Education Advancement Program has been working with students in public schools to improve learning and get them at par with other schools in the country

Launched in 2016, the program has its largest partner, Bridge Liberia that is supporting over 300 public primary schools across Liberia, with technical support from NewGlobe

Bridge Liberia supports over 1500 teachers and has trained these teachers in specific classroom management techniques, praise and technology based teaching methods to improve teaching and learning in schools it supports across the country

Teachers in Bridge Liberia supported schools benefit from scientifically developed lesson plans and integrated digital content and learning materials tailored to the Liberian context and curriculum. Teaching guides are designed to ensure concepts are taught to maximize students’ understanding and learning, with exactly the right rigor, repetition and sequencing.

Lesson plans support teachers with clear measurable goals and expected outcomes for their students All teaching is targeted to maximize learning for students, through structured practice and feedback grounded in extensive research on the most effective use of class time

Such a uniquely practical, data-driven induction training ensures every teacher is capable of delivering dramatic learning gains for their students

The response from teachers, even highly experienced ones, is overwhelmingly positive. William Sackie of Tonglewin Public School in Ganta, Nimba County puts it, “this level of training I received from Bridge Liberia has made my teaching career easier and I can now just go to class with my tablet and present to my students. I have all my daily lessons already collated. It is much fun now in the classroom.”

The result of all these interventions by Bridge Liberia is the ultimate proof of success that has been in learning outcomes for Bridge Liberia supported students

Compared to traditional public schools, the preliminary results from Year One of the LEAP pilot revealed learning gains of 60% or more in partnership schools, and of over 100% in Bridge Liberia schools, this is according to a Study conducted in year one of the program in Liberia

The same methods used to train and support Bridge Liberia teachers have been used in other education programs in Lagos and Kwara States and in the national RwandaEQUIP program and other territories supported by NewGlobe

A vital element in each of the programs is ongoing data-driven coaching and professional development for every teacher Lessons are observed by highly trained learning and development supervisors several times a month, with teachers receiving bespoke face-to-face feedback

“When I give teachers feedback they are happy; they embrace the ideas I see teachers have improved very well When I go to class, students are paying attention, they have access to learning materials and are focussed I am very impressed because together we are achieving,” explains Bridge Liberia supervisor Angeline Teahway

The training and support for teachers in the Bridge Liberia ecosystem under the LEAP Program also draws support and recognition from education stakeholders including the houses committee chairpersons on education

“I admire the level of monitoring and supervision I see in our public schools supported by Bridge Liberia I let every other partner in education know that the same monitoring will be expected from you all and the Legislature will do everything in its powers to support the Ministry of Education and Bridge Liberia to ensure teachers are transformed to support our students” Senator Prince K. Moye, Senate Committee Chair on Education said.

The teaching methods underpinning all the programs supported by NewGlobe including Bridge Liberia was recently studied by a team led by Professor Michael Kremer, Nobel Prize winner for Economics in 2019 in Kenya

They found not only that students taught using the methods made some of the biggest learning gains ever found in such a study, but that students and their parents reported better teaching

Let’s remember, teachers deserve consistent and expert training and support Tech-enabled, data-driven coaching and professional development for teachers, which makes-up such a vital part of the public education transformation programs spreading across Africa, are a blueprint for teaching success And as UNESCO says, transforming education outcomes for all students begins with teachers Happy World Teachers’ Day.

Why The World Bank Should Rethink its Education Strategy for Africa at the UN Global Education Summit

This week the UN is hosting its first Transforming Education summit

Government leaders and educationists from across the world are convening in New York for the United Nations (UN) inaugural Transforming Education Summit The summit is a response to the global learning crisis, and is focussed on identifying education transformation programmes proven to work at scale

The UN summit is taking place against a backdrop of growing evidence about the unprecedented scale of the learning crisis and an increasingly public acknowledgement by leaders that the 2030 SDG-4 goal - the provision of quality education for all by 2030- will not be met.

The Liberian Delegation will be headed by Education Minister, Professor Ansu Sonii. Unlike other African Leaders, Liberia has taken practical action to implement system transformation across the nation. The Minister will be using the summit to showcase the Liberian Education Advancement Programme (LEAP) one of the few programmes on the continent designed to improve learning outcomes at scale.

As World Leaders convene to discuss solutions to learning poverty; many will be discussing the surprising U turn by the World Bank who has publically abandoned its 2030 SDG4 targets The World Bank published its Western and Central African Strategy on the Education Sector highlighting a number of targets that may not be achieved This is the Bank's first regional strategy published since 2001

Amongst other things, the Bank is drawing down on the achievement of its goal of reducing learning poverty (inability to read and understand a simple text at age 10) from 80 percent in 2020 to 75 percent by 2025, and 66 percent by 2030 The publication of the strategy highlights that the Bank is giving up on achieving the SDGs Goal 4 by 2030, which aims at ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all This goal ensures that all girls and boys complete free primary and secondary schooling by 2030

In contrast, local Government leaders, including economically challenged Liberia, remain firmly committed to tackling learning loss and meeting the globally agreed SDG4 targets at a national level. It is worrying that they are more ambitious than the World Bank seems to be when it comes to SDG4. This will have consequences. The Government’s LEAP programme is currently dependent upon donor funding and hopes to ultimately secure multilateral funding; but this seems increasingly unlikely if organisations such as the World Bank are openly backtracking on the need to tackle the learning crisis by 2030.

In a proactive and locally lead efforts to deal with the learning crisis faced by their populations, the Liberian Government, like other governments in Africa, opened up its education sector for partnerships, under the Partnerships Schools for Liberia (PSL) renamed the Liberia Education Advancement Program (LEAP) programme Bridge Liberia, the largest partner in the LEAP Program supports over 75,000 students in all counties

At the end of the first semester of the 2022 academic year, LEAP data showed that more than 40,000 students, or approximately one-third of the program's total student population, are enrolled in early childhood education grades (beginner, nursery, kindergarten), thus demonstrating the LEAP partners' support of pre-primary enrollment and provision. Gender balance and equality are program hallmarks and continue to progress. In the 2022 academic year's first semester, LEAP’s pupil gender equity ratio showed 47% female vs. 53% male.

The total number of schools managed by the current four LEAP partners has grown by 650% since the program's inception, and 50% from 2021 to 2022, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Total LEAP pupil enrollment grew by more than 60% from 2021 to 2022.

The methodology underpinning the Bridge Liberia was the subject of a groundbreaking study earlier in the year by a Nobel Prize winner for economics The study found ‘among the largest learning again ever measured’; if this does not offer the scalable kind of solution being sought by the World Bank and the Global education community at the Transforming Education summitthen what does?

The World Bank is familiar with the work taking place in Liberia and has supported similar programming in Nigeria to the tune of $75 million

Its leaders know there are scalable solutions to learning poverty in action and recognise its new strategy; the question is why does it not have the confidence to focus on the wider delivery of those solutions?

As the United Nations convene its annual meeting with a summit on education; the Transforming Education Summit (TES), it would be relevant for global bodies like the UN to look in countries and work with organisations that are already working in line with actions tracks outlined by TES such as digital learning and transformation Digital learning and transformation, is already at the core of LEAP approach to transforming public education,as recommended by the World Bank

Partners like Bridge Liberia that is supporting over 300 public primary schools across the country use cross cutting edge technology to support and monitor school leaders for effective delivery of learning materials for the students on a daily basis

Bridge Liberia focuses on teacher training and leverages technology to empower teachers and improve children’s learning outcomes, through intensive training, ongoing support, scientifically-based digital teacher guides, positive classroom management techniques and real-time monitoring of lessons

he impact of this support shows in numerous randomised control studies conducted to measure the impact of the program

The Learning in Liberia Year 3 study shows that eighty-one per cent of students who joined a Bridge Liberia supported school under the LEAP program in the first grade and have now spent 2½ years in a Bridge Liberia supported classroom are proficient or basic readers; compared to only 33% of students in traditional public schools

Interventions like these are being made at the time educational infrastructure is crumbling, teachers aren't showing up for work, and an entire generation is at threat of being left behind in terms of education

The Bridge Liberia approach to transforming public education, recommended by the World Bank, combines structured pedagogy with the gathering of real-time data supported by technology for accountability and feedback, especially as countries struggle to recover from the global COVID-19 pandemic

In the face of tremendous innovations, it is imperative for the World Bank to creatively revise its strategy on the achievement of SDGs 4 by lending technical and financial support to institutions in the education sector to further mitigate and/or address the challenges of enrollment and retention of students particularly in rural Liberia By forming partnership with local education providers, it will ostensibly further eliminate challenges surrounding cultural and traditional obstacles facing students enrollment and retention

Furthermore, it is worth noting for the World Bank to support the acceleration of improvements in Liberia’s public education system and establish evidence-based interventions to increase optimal student learning outcomes by supporting endeavours being undertaken by education providers like Bridge Liberia

As Global leaders Convene in New York; policymakers should listen and learn from those leaders who have effective programming at scale to showcase There are so many conversations; about ways that learning could improve but now is the time to start implementing those that have been proven to work in the countries where the learning crisis is most acutely felt

The World Bank should be increasing its ambitions for education, not scaling them back The LEAP Program clearly shows that indeed partnerships in education do work and the World Bank must consider the methodology behind it as a solution to to ending learning poverty as recommended by Nobel Prize winner Prof Michael Kremer in his groundbreaking study on education; Solutions to learning poverty

“Literacy is key to learning”, says Bridge Liberia Academics Manager at World Literacy Day Commemoration

8thSeptember2022

The world is today marking International Literacy Day, under the theme “Transforming Literacy Learning Spaces ”

The annual commemoration of International Literacy Day raises awareness about literacy and how it contributes to human rights and dignity, while promoting steps taken towards achieving a literate and sustainable society among others Literacy is the foundation of learning which directly impacts the lives of people and the society in general Bridge Liberia is one education partner that is supporting the Liberian Government to achieve its literacy agenda through improving learning gains for the students in government primary schools

Basic literacy skills like reading, writing, listening and speaking must be tackled and properly taught by teachers to ensure students get the basis to learn for the future Education providers like Bridge Liberia, educational programs are carefully designed to ensure that students attain the literacy skills required to make them competitive learners

In 2019, a learning in Liberia year 3 report disclosed that 4 in 5 students become readers in two and a half years after enrolling in a Bridge Liberia supported school

As the global community commemorates another literacy day, the call to transform literacy learning spaces cannot be overemphasized At the official event organized by the Ministry of Education, Bridge Liberia Academics Manager, Michari Tomah Samukai called on all partners in the education sector to ensure they play their part in creating a literate society

This can only be achieved by ensuring teachers are in the classrooms and teaching world class lessons to students to ensure they learn

To have qualified teachers, they must be trained and equipped to handle the classroom

As Bridge Liberia joins the global community to celebrate International Literacy Day, the organization remains committed to ensuring students who are a part of its ecosystem get the required learning experience

The Bridge Liberia approach to teaching cuts across this Bridge Liberia trains teachers on specific teaching principles, techniques and technological skills that a contemporary teacher needs for the effective delivery of learning materials in the classroom These teachers are monitored through both human and technological means to ensure they go to class and deliver lessons effectively

This method of learning has been proven to work and is recommended by Nobel Prize Winner Michael Kremer, latest report on education stating, “ If replicated at scale across public education systems, the gains could be enough to put African children from underserved communities on track to match their peers in countries with incomes three or four times higher ”

Literacy is key to learning, therefore we all must ensure our contribution towards a literate Liberia is intentional and deliberate, in order to achieve the needed results”

Bridge Liberia launches back to school initiative to support Gov’t and retention drive for students

6thSeptember2022

As part of Bridge Liberia public awareness campaign to support the government’s enrollment and retention initiative of students, the social enterprise is calling on parents and guardians in the reach of its over 300 supported schools across the country to have their children enrolled.

The government’s largest partner in the Liberia Education Advancement Program (LEAP) is currently supporting over 300 schools where teachers are well trained in teaching principles, techniques and technological skills that a contemporary teacher needs for the effective delivery of learning materials in the classroom

Gbovadeh Gbilia, Bridge Liberia MD reaffirming the organization’s commitment to ensuring children leave the streets and return to the classrooms, discouraged parents from sending their children to sell during school hours

Parents are encouraged to make Bridge Liberia supported schools the choice for their children this academic year, to improve their learning At the government primary schools supported by Bridge Liberia, teachers are also trained to call on both boys and girls in the classroom to respond to a question via a classroom technique known as cold calling thereby supporting girls to make the same leap in learning as boys

Eighty-one per cent of students who joined a Bridge Liberia supported school in the first grade and have now spent 2½ years in a Bridge Liberia supported classroom are proficient or basic readers; compared to only 33% of students in traditional public schools, this is according to a Learning in Liberia Study.

A recent groundbreaking study also conducted by Nobel Prize winner Prof Michael Kremer, shows that for early childhood development (ECD) –typically 3 and 5 year olds – children gain nearly an additional year and half of learning; learning in two years what students in other schools learn in three and a half years

The study among other things finds that children taught using NewGlobe’s methods are more than three times more likely to be able to read a sentence by the time they are in first grade, relative to their peers in other schools

NewGlobe, is Bridge Liberia technical partner, supporting over 1 million children in Liberia, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and India The back to school initiative is targeting school going children who are used as breadwinners during school hours and underprivileged children whose parents and guardians cannot afford to send their children to school, both in rural areas and Monrovia

A 2006 report by OCHA disclosed that over 15,000 Liberia children were in the streets performing different forms of child labor, from street hawking to bus conductor among others.

This year, partners supporting the government are making deliberate and intentional efforts to ensure that school going children return to the classrooms and stay in school Every county in Liberia has a school supported by the education provider Parents only need to contact these primary schools and jump start their children’s education

Bridge Liberia concludes Principal Summit ahead of the opening of schools

23thAugust2022

Bridge Liberia, the largest partner in the Liberian Education Advancement Program (LEAP) has concluded its annual principals summit ahead of the opening of schools for the 2022/2023 academic year

Each year, principals in the Bridge ecosystem are brought together in ideal clusters and provided insights and briefings that will set the basis for the next academic year

At the summit, principles are also trained on new innovations that will be used in the new school year

Bridge Liberia’s newest innovation of administering paperless exams was highly welcomed and celebrated by the principals at the summit Principals and teachers

will also be able to mark students test scores and input student grades via a technological innovation known as Let’s Mark

The school leaders will use the Let’s Mark application by taking the pictures of students’ answer sheets which will automatically upload the students’ results in the schools database

This application will eliminate teachers manually entering the test scores of students after every exam, thereby saving time and resources The principals also discussed challenges they faced during the past academic year, with recommendations about how the challenges can be mitigated

At the summit, high performing principals were celebrated and urged to continue working to impact knowledge in the children they serve High performing principals in the Bridge Liberia ecosystem are those who meet key performance indicators such as lesson completion, teachers attendance, students attendance tracking amongst others

This year, the summit brought together principals in three different clusters; Monrovia, Ganta and Barclaville from 11 to 19 August 2022

“You have our support to transform education for public schools” says Bridge Liberia M.D. at stakeholders’ dialogue forum.

14thAugust2022

The Managing Director of Bridge Liberia has reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to transforming education for Liberian students and improving learning gains.

Speaking at a two-day multi-sectoral stakeholder’s dialogue forum on transforming education summit and enhancing access and retention in the education sector, Hon Gbovadeh Gbilia began by calling on parents to ensure their children go to school and remain in school, as a way of preparing them for the future

He frowned on parents using children as breadwinners, when instead it should be the other way around for parents to make the sacrifice for the future of their children

An OCHA Report in 2006 disclosed that over 15,000 Liberian children were in the streets performing different forms of child labour, thus preventing them from going to school Bridge Liberia is a social enterprise partnering with the government and is currently supporting over 300 public primary schools across the country where over 75,000 students are enrolled

Education Minister Prof D Ansu Sonii at the forum emphasised the government’s readiness to make the needed adjustments to ensure children go to school and remain in school

The education minister used the forum to discourage parents and traditional leaders from taking children to the sande and poro societies when schools are in session, something he described as a serious problem affecting learning gains in rural Liberia.

As part of strategies to improve enrolment and retention of students, the forum considered a 360-degree approach of targeting said challenge that has hindered the education of Liberian children

Some public schools in rural Liberia have suffered serious challenges with enrolment and retention of students due to traditional leaders and parents taking students to attend traditional schools (sande and poro) while schools were in section Some schools even suffered possible closure due to traditional practices in the community

The Cinta Public School in Margibi County, is one of the many schools affected by such traditional practice The school took centre stage in the media recently when parents and traditional leaders opted to send their hildren to traditional schools and threatened the school’s administrators if they do not allow students to leave the school for the latter

Traditional leaders from the fifteen counties including chiefs and elders, formed part of the forum, to help find a solution to such a situation that is impeding learning gains for children in rural Liberia

In separate remarks they all agreed to support the education of children in the community by rescheduling the timing of the traditional schools so that it does not interfere with that of the formal school curriculum, as recommended by the Senate Committee chair on education, Senator Prince Moye

The forum was also a medium for all education stakeholders to proffer recommendations to the ministry of education on how to improve the education sector and was organised by the Joint Education Committee Secretariat at the legislature and took place in Ganta, Nimba County.

Bridge Liberia, ECOWAS, UNICEF commemorate Day of the African Child

20thJune2022

Every year, the 16th of June has been a special day for children in Africa, and Liberia is no exception

The day is celebrated every year to honor children who participated in the Soweto Uprising in 1976 on that day It also raises awareness of the need for better education for African children The day was first initiated by the Organization of African Unity (OAU)

Despite the fact that the world has been afflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Liberia’s young and creative minds were ecstatic about participating in activities planned, organized and supported by Bridge Liberia, a social enterprise supporting over three hundred public primary schools across Liberia, ECOWAS and UNICEF

Over 40 students from selected schools including Bridge Liberia supported schools took over top radio stations in Monrovia to discuss the theme of the 2022 Day of the African Child; “Eliminating Harmful Practices Affecting Children: Progress on Policy and Practice since 2013” with policy makers

The topics under discussion included: the harmful things that children do to themselves; the world that young people desire; harmful activities on campuses and how they may be prevented or stopped; and how policymakers can ensure that children are protected

They also spoke with policymakers such as Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor; Gbovadeh Gbilia, Managing Director of Bridge-Liberia; Laila Omar Gad, UNICEF Resident Representative; and Mr Nathaniel B Walker, Political Advisor/Liaison Officer Early Warning for the ECOWAS Resident Representative Office

Among the issues raised in relation to the day’s theme was the need for governments in the sub-region to strengthen their child protection policies to address harmful practices affecting children, particularly young girls, such as female genital mutilation (FGM), child marriage, drug addiction, sex for grades, and child labor, among others

Liberia’s Vice President, Jewel HowardTaylor, reminded the children and those in the sub-region of the country’s commitment to protecting their rights She made the remarks at a radio panel discussion moderated by the students She also stated that they are still dealing with issues such as female genital mutilation (FGM) Vice President Howard-Taylor stated that she is still hopeful that a bill will be passed to stop FGM soon in Liberia

According to her, there are already rules in place that require girls to reach a specific age before entering marriage, and while some communities continue to do so, it is no longer acceptable for someone to offer their 12-year-old daughter into marriage

She said, “Parents used to send their boys to school and say that the girls would marry and it would be a waste of time, but today the family recognizes that females are valued equally to boys, which is also a wonderful thing, and they are some of the few positive things that have happened in the last 20 years ”

Vice President Howard-Taylor noted that the effect of education on the entire social and economic spectrum of life in Liberia has been felt and is very robust, which is a good thing

Bridge Liberia Managing Director Gbovadeh Gbilia also remarked during the panel discussion that Bridge Liberia is devoted to ensuring that Liberian students in public primary schools obtain the greatest possible education to build their foundation as they progress to higher levels of education

Mr Gbilia further stated that his organization is using education as a means of ensuring the story of the Liberian Child is changed in a positive way

He mentioned that Bridge Liberia methodology of teaching has positively impacted students under Bridge support, with Bridge Liberia students having an equivalent of 2 5 years of additional learning compared to their peers in other public schools

He was extremely proud of the students from the J W Pearson Elementary School and Kendeja Public School at the program with their level of eloquence during the activities

A recent study conducted by Prof Michael Kremer, a 2019 Nobel Prize winner which focused on NewGlobe’s methodology shows the education provider’s impact is among greatest of any rigorously studied education program

Professor Michael Kremer’s study of NewGlobe’s methodological approach to teaching and learning, using one of NewGlobe’s programs in Kenya, found primary school students, through junior high school, after two years in the NewGlobe program are nearly a whole additional year ahead of children taught using standard methods.

If replicated at scale across public education systems, the gains could be enough to put African children –including Liberians – from underserved communities on track to match their peers in countries with incomes three or four times higher

This is the same methodology of teaching used by Bridge Liberia, which is technically supported by NewGlobe The Day of the African Child, according to UNICEF Resident Representative Laila Omar Gad, “clearly demonstrates that each and every single person can change the world and can change the person ”

Madam Omar Gad of UNICEF said the day was also important to recognize other forms of exploitation, such as physical and sexual abuse “We all know that with the introduction of COVID-19, there has been a significant surge in violence against children,” she said

Madam Omar Gad disclosed that UNICEF is working with all partners to ensure that every child born in Liberia and around the world has the opportunity to realize their destiny and reach their full potential

Education, according to her, is one of the most important prerequisites for a child to become active citizens in a society, to release their gifts and skills, and to contribute to the country’s economic prosperity

Government’s Education Program LEAP and partner

Bridge Liberia showcased at Education World Forum 2022 in London

23rdMay2022

MONROVIA – The largest gathering of Global Heads of State, Education ministers and stakeholders is currently taking place in London; and Liberia’s Government and its Education Minister Prof Sonii is in attendance –showcasing its flagship education reform program with its key technical partner Bridge Liberia

The prestigious Education World Forum (EWF) is an annual gathering that provides an opportunity to education ministers and stakeholders across the globe to come together and discuss how their education systems are working and debate strategies for improving outcomes in their respective countries.

Since the pandemic the event has been postponed so EWF 2022 is important not only because of the large number of Political and thought leaders it attracts, but also because of the theme and focus of deliberations – Education: building forward together; stronger, bolder, better.

Liberia will be one of the most influential countries at the Education World Forum this year, for the reason that – unlike many others – its Government has implemented an education

transformation program – The Liberian Education Advancement program (LEAP) – designed to deliver better opportunities for its youth

Many Governments are looking for new solutions that will help them not only re-build their education systems and combat the learning losses that have impacted their populations but build back better – putting in place systems that drive learning and enable success

Liberia is showcasing one When the World Bank report disclosed that half of all children in low and middle income countries are in “Learning Poverty”, defined as a child not being able to read or understand a simple text by age 10, and even worse in sub-Saharan Africa, where a catastrophic 90% of 10-year-olds cannot read at this basic level, governments like the Liberian Government understood that only an innovative approach to education would bring the desired change.

The Liberian Government led the way in Africa by attracting private sector partners to the country in order to

help reinvigorate its education system and partners like Bridge Liberia are working with the government to overcome gaps in education in learning across Liberia’s counties

Bridge Liberia is focused on helping the Liberian Government achieve SDG4, the UN goal of quality education by supporting improvements in the public primary education system Bridge operates as part of the LEAP programme supporting 350 public primary schools across the country accounting for 64% of the overall program

Bridge Liberia is one of the programs supported by NewGlobe, a global education organisation supporting the improvement of public education at scale across State and nationwide programs to ensure more effective learning in classrooms. It’s approach to public education, recommended by the World Bank, combines structured pedagogy with the gathering of real-time data supported by technology for accountability and feedback. These methods are increasingly being viewed as essential as countries struggle to recover from the global COVID-19 pandemic.

As leaders discuss possible solutions to help them build back better they will be looking at interventions that have not only been implemented at scale but have been proven to be effective. Liberia’s LEAP programme was studied as part of a gold standard RCT conducted by the Centre for Global Development and Innovations for Poverty Actions.

Among other findings it showed that students at Bridge Liberia supported schools learned significantly more than students at traditional public schools, nearly twice as much in reading and more than twice as much in maths The equivalent of an additional year of schooling

The Bridge Liberia leadership are among those attending the Education World Forum alongside Liberia’s Government delegation They will highlight the support the organisation continues to offer governments in turning government schools into globally competitive public schools

Bridge Liberia Managing Director, Gbovadeh Gbilia, who is also UNESCO’s Vice Chair on education, believes that it is possible to building forward together; stronger, bolder, better and to undo the damage that the pandemic has done to education systems; the key is partnership and can be achieved by governments – as Liberia has proven – with the support of partnerships like those between the Liberian Government and Bridge Liberia.

We have a task at hand, and with the level of support coming from partners in the private sector, we believe that we are on the right track to attaining this goal of SDG4”.

However, the conversation is still needed at the top, where decisions are made

Forums like the Education World Forum, present such an opportunity and possibility to rewrite the course of action for education in developing countries like Liberia ”

How technology is changing teaching and learning at Bridge Liberia supported schools

10thMay2022

Technology is transforming education in so many different ways From changing how students learn, to empowering teachers and other school leaders at every stage of their journey to deliver lessons in a timely, coherent and guided manner

The teachers tablet, a technology pioneered by Bridge International Academics, are tablets loaded with detailed lesson plans and instructions for teachers to deliver to students daily

The tablets also feed data back to supervisors to track the teacher’s activity and attendance and ensure they are sticking to the lesson plans

This milestone achievement in the education sector has not only improved test scores and learning for students, but it is also contributing to the performance of teachers in the classrooms at Bridge Liberia supported schools

Janet Tamba, the Principal at JW Pearson Elementary School in Monrovia, is particularly grateful for such technology which is enabling her to effectively execute her duties as principal.

Every morning, Janet ensures teachers synchronize their teaching tablets to get the daily lesson for delivery in the classroom

This process, according to Janet, mandates teachers to report to school early, thereby improving teachers attendance at school

This is what I use for teachers to sign in on a daily basis. We no longer have to use the manual method where teachers sign their names in a register, because once you synchronize your device, you are automatically signed in, and this process is done every school day before we commence lessons.”

According to Minister Sonii the challenge of monitoring and supervision cuts across all sectors of Government, and therefore a concerted effort is needed to tackle this

Since 2016, Bridge Liberia has been using such devices to bridge the gap between human and technological monitoring of schools supported by the social enterprise

This technological approach by Bridge Liberia towards education clearly supports monitoring and supervision, something that is posing a serious challenge to the sector as confirmed recently by Education Minister Ansu Sonii.

Bridge Liberia uses technology to transform Liberia’s education system

10thMay2022

With the growth of technology in Liberia, Bridge Liberia has transformed the teaching system in Liberia through the use of tablets and mobile phones The technologies are well equipped with teaching materials in connection with Liberia’s education standard and style Teachers and school leaders are trained at every stage of their journey to deliver lessons in a timely, coherent, and guided manner

The world is fast transforming, especially with the use of technology According to connect comptia org, after the speed bump of 2020, the technology industry is returning to its previous growth pattern of 5%-6% growth year over year. The United States is the largest tech market in the world, representing 33% of the total, or approximately $1.8 trillion for 2022.

Weforum.org has reported that Africa’s mobile service subscription figures are skyrocketing. 615 million users in subSaharan Africa are expected to subscribe to mobile services by 2025. This presents an immense opportunity and is a testament to Africa’s creative capacities.

Access to technology must be coupled with socio-economic welfare Swedenabroad se reported that Liberia’s ICT sector is emerging and the market holds growth potential Figures from January 2020 showed that there were 4 million mobile connections in Liberia, equivalent to 83 percent of the population, and the mobile connections increased by 32 percent between 2019 and 2020 The teacher tablet, a technology pioneered by Bridge International Academics, are tablet loaded with detailed lesson plans and instructions for teachers to deliver to students daily.

Bridge tablets also feed data back to supervisors to track the teacher’s activity and attendance and ensure they are sticking to the lesson plans. This has improved both performances of teachers and students performance in the classroom, especially in Bridge Liberia Schools.

Speaking to some teachers in Bridge Liberia schools, J.W. Pearson Elementary School located on Johnson streets in Monrovia; Montserrado County principal

expressed thanks and appreciation to Bridge Liberia for the technology and training which enable her to work effectively as a principal According to her, she ensures every teacher synchronizes their teaching tablets to get the daily lesson for delivery in the classroom According to Madam Janet, the process mandates teachers to report to school early, improving teachers’ attendance at school

The technology introduced in schools has been well welcome by Liberia’s Education Minister Monitoring teachers’ activities in schools is a serious challenge, but Bridge Liberia technology, has allowed for improvement in many schools especially Bridge Liberia monitor school, something Minister Sonii appreciates. According to Education Minister D. Ansu Sonii, the challenge of monitoring and supervision cuts across all sectors of the government, something he said needs to be tackled. Bridge Liberia, since 2016 has used the devices to connect the gap between human and technological monitoring of schools.

Bridge Liberia Donates Books to We Care Library to Mark World Book Day

25thApril2022

MONROVIA – Every year, on April 23 the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and education partners celebrate World Book and Copyrights Day, an event that promotes reading and celebrates great writers like William Shakespeare, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, a great Spanish writer, among others

Reading, which is bedrock to education as well as a fundamental skill for education, is lacking in students mostly in poor countries, a challenge that education partners like Bridge Liberia is working to mitigate

A 2017 Study conducted by UNESCO informed that most children are not able to read well, due to several factors including the availability of books.

Education partners like Bridge Liberia view such studies as an opportunity to turn things around, especially for students they support.

Bridge Liberia, which supports 350 public primary schools across the country provides learning materials including textbooks to support teachers and students.

This kind of support eliminates the two major drivers holding education back: a lack of access to learning and a lack of quality teaching, which significantly impacts learning

The textbooks provided by Bridge Liberia to its supported schools have contributed to significant improvement in reading among its students with data available to prove it

In Bridge Liberia’s first year of operation, a Learning in Liberia Report showed that students at Bridge Liberia supported schools could read 7 more words per minute and answer 6% more questions correctly about the story they just read.

Further, 17% of Bridge-supported public schools’ second graders met reading fluency benchmarks for the first time, compared to only 4% of second graders at traditional public schools. At the end of the first year, a randomized control trial by the Center for Global Development found Bridgesupported students had reading gains equivalent to a whole additional year of schooling when compared to other government schools.

As Bridge Liberia joins the world to celebrate World Book Day, the social enterprise has donated over 1,500 textbooks to the WE CARE LIBRARY, a public library operating in central Monrovia since 1995, where students go to do research and read on a daily basis

The Executive Director of the Library P Michael Weah, commended the social enterprise for choosing to celebrate World Book Day 2022 in such a unique way, by providing learning materials for students and the general public in central Monrovia

The donation of these books will give hundreds of students in central Monrovia access to academic books they can use for various educational purposes including reading, to help them get on a learning path with other students around the world.

The journey of books may begin with the writer, but there is indeed a reader that is waiting for such scholastic to complete a portion of their lives, as we believe that reading should be a part of people’s lives, least to mention students.

Liberia: The Journey of a book

21stApril2022

Reading transforms lives It opens the door to the entire world of learning No child will understand a math question unless they can read it Reading improves language and is fundamental to a child’s entire future academic achievement

But globally, reading is in crisis

According to World Bank Education, half of all children in low and middle income countries are in “Learning Poverty” –defined as a child not being able to read or understand a simple text by age 10 In sub-Saharan Africa, it is far worse – a catastrophic 90% of 10-year-olds cannot read at this basic level And the impact of the covid pandemic is expected to push another 72 million children globally into Learning Poverty

UN World Book and Copyright Day falls every year on April 23rd It aims to foster and encourage a love of reading, through a love of books At Bridge Liberia, we know that no child can love reading if they don’t know how to read And we also know that reading begins with a book That is why every book we help put into the hands of a child must be as good as it can possibly be And that is why the journey of a book is so important

Local Ownership

The journey of every book for NewGlobe is a shared one, a partnership In Liberia, where Bridge Liberia, is the largest partner in the LEAP program of public school improvement, that means working closely with the national Ministry of Education. In Nigeria, where NewGlobe is the technical supporter for state education transformation programs, that means designing in step with State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) such as in Lagos State, where we support the EKOEXCEL program.

Everywhere we support schools, we ensure all books are in line with the curriculum

In Kenya, the Government partnered with Bridge Kenya to roll out the new competency-based curriculum and every book used in a Bridge Kenya school is precisely aligned to support it This fit is vital to ensure that what children learn from a book is what they are required to know and may be tested on in life-changing exams

Feedback from local teachers is essential, to gauge how current textbooks support classroom learning and to ensure that all new books handed to students align with the core competencies outlined in the curriculum.

Creating learning material of the highest quality possible is a time and labor-intensive process; meticulous attention to detail is required, to ensure that textbooks are locally owned, and that all content including images and language is inclusive and region specific..

For a child to engage meaningfully with a textbook, they must see themselves and their culture represented in it This could be a simple thing like counting ‘cookies’ versus counting ‘biscuits’ depending on which word they might hear used in everyday life But it could also be something much more profound – the effect of seeing a young woman doing a science experiment in an illustration, or a group of friends from different backgrounds and religions

Such images are powerful They affect not only the learning process, but also the way in which learners experience the world around them It’s why all images are selected carefully, to make sure books containing pictures feature both girls and boys, that they are of the right age for class expected to use the book and that their dress is appropriate to the country or region.

NewGlobe expertise

As well as ensuring the journey of a book is always a local one, we also make sure that we add the benefit of 15 years’ of experience and expertise, as leaders in learning.

We know at NewGlobe that every book must be based on an absolutely accurate assessment of the learning levels of the children who will be using it

That’s why for every program we support, we randomly select representative schools and then run numeracy and literacy tests That way we can be sure that the decisions made about what language is used to introduce concepts or ideas is tailored to the needs and understanding of the children who will be using the book. For instance, it’s possible to describe the idea of “friction” simply or at a very high level. Testing helps ensure we pitch it just right.

NewGlobe also ensures that no book is created alone. Books which do not align with the entire teaching and learning experience may be of little use. So a crucial part of the journey for every book is its fit with every aspect – teacher training, classroom techniques, the whole system. It is a holistic approach which makes every book as useful as it can possibly be in supporting the learning of children

The making of a book

After so much work, there is still no physical book Only after the crucial steps of local ownership and educational expertise have been followed is a book ready to be produced

Once a book is approved, it moves onto the manufacturing stage of the process

A manufacturing team takes the specifications of the book to printers Examples of the specifications required are the number of pages, or page count, ink color and the type of binding needed The printer awarded the book then receives the approved files, and the book is ready to be born.

Once the book is printed, local operations teams take-on two more processes, kitting and distribution. Kitting is the job of organizing books by school. Distribution is the delivery of those batches of books to the right schools.

Finally, a book arrives at school. But its journey is not quite over. The final stage of a book’s journey is to facilitate learning. Textbooks arrive in classrooms where they are used to teach or reinforce important curriculum concepts. Here they become an invaluable resource to improve learning outcomes for children

How to tell a book is good

Finally, a book has arrived in the most important hands of all; the hands of a child One final step remains – to be sure that child is learning as well as possible, with the help of that book

Every program and community NewGlobe supports uses real-time data gathering, in order to measure how well pupils are improving

One example is the Bridge Liberia partnership program which is transforming learning outcomes for children in 350 primary schools

Education Minister Prof D Ansu Sonni who is a veteran educator and a strong advocate for education commended the partnership with Bridge Liberia when he spoke recently about how partnerships in education is supporting learning gains.

“From the time I have been onboard, no other organization has brought the kind of satisfaction in the performance of complementary education services that helped us in the whole sector.”

At Bridge Liberia, we work every day to make sure that the journey of each book is as good as it can possibly be. We harness the power of a book every day. But on UN World Book and Copyright Day we celebrate that journey even more. The journey of a book.

LIBERIA: Nimba County Education Officer Extols Bridge Liberia

28th March 2022

Bridge Liberia, one of the Government of Liberia’s partners in the education sector supporting public schools to improve learning and teaching, has been commended by the County Education Officer of Nimba, Moses Dologbay, for its model of monitoring and supervision at its supported schools in Nimba County

According to Mr Dologbay, the Bridge Liberia approach of monitoring schools has ensured teachers, students and school administrators at supported schools attend classes every school day, as well as teachers deliver learning materials as required.

In addition to providing a teaching tablet to all teachers and school administrators, which serves as a monitoring device for attendance and lesson delivery, Bridge Liberia schools supervisors also visit supported schools daily, to ensure compliance and mitigate whatever situation that may arise at the various schools.

With thirteen educational districts, Nimba County hosts over one hundred of the three hundred and fifty schools allotted to Bridge Liberia by the Ministry of Education for support, thus prompting the need for such rigorous monitoring

Mr Dologbay, who monitors and supervises all education activities as the County Education Officer, has been keen on ensuring partners to the Ministry of Education in the county work with schools and district education officers to monitor and supervise various schools, something he is commending Bridge Liberia for.

The social enterprise is keen on significantly improving learning for students in public schools, thereby helping to give them a better future.

Education Minister Prof D Ansu Sonii is currently travelling across the country inspecting schools, as part of the plans to properly monitor schools and make improvements in the education system

Monitoring and supervision is one of the challenges the Ministry of Education is tackling as a way to improve the quality of education at public schools in the country

Such physical and technological monitoring has been part of Bridge Liberia model of learning since 2016, when the social enterprise signed the partnership with the Liberian Government.

Celebrating the women behind Bridge Liberia

9thMarch2022

March 8, is celebrated throughout the world as International Women’s Day. Recognized by the United Nations to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, the day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements or rally for women’s equality

Under the global theme “Break the Barriers, Set the Stage for Gender Equality”, the Liberian Government has coined the local theme “ Liberian women in history: breaking the barriers and setting the stage for gender equality ”

This theme coincides with the marking of Liberia’s bi-centennial, celebrating the return of free black slaves who moved back to Liberia 200 years ago

In Liberia, there is a national celebration each year, highlighting the Liberian women’s journey in the struggle for women’s rights and women’s empowerment Women from different professional backgrounds meet at the national event where dignitaries and politicians are all present for the celebration

This year, for the first time Bridge Liberia women teachers and staff are participating in the national celebration

Teaching, which is considered one of the most important professions in the world, comes with so many challenges especially in a third world country like Liberia With all the many challenges, teachers are expected to improve learning outcomes and lay the foundation for the prosperity of both their communities and countries

At Bridge Liberia supported schools, women are part of the equation that is empowering a new generation of confident and successful girls

For instance, according to a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) 5th grade girls’ average performance on reading fluency increased by over 27 words per minute Once lagging by 10 words per minute, girls now outperform boys

This statistic, we believe won’t be possible without the women teachers who come to class with passion to deliver world class lessons to students each day

According to a Study, there is a direct correlation between the number of women teachers and girls’ enrollment, especially in sub-Saharan Africa

Such studies suggest that women teachers do not only play a significant role in mentoring female students, but female students feel more comfortable when they have a female teacher to look up to for guidance

Bridge Liberia strategy is to ensure the number of qualified female teachers increases to make the desired impact in Liberia’s education sector While this process is on, we are wishing the over 600 female teachers at Bridge Liberia supported schools, Happy International Women’s Day

Liberia leads the way in fighting pandemic learning loss

28th February 2022

The scale of learning loss caused by the Covid pandemic is staggering The World Bank estimates that the impact of school closures has increased the proportion of 10-year-olds unable to read or understand a simple text – so-called “learning poverty” – to 70% in low and middle-income countries

In sub-Saharan Africa, where the figure stood at 90% even before the impact of Covid, the situation is even worse One academic study suggests learning loss of between six months and one year of schooling, multiplying if not addressed to lost learning of 2 8 years for a child in Grade Three by the time they reach Grade 10

In December the Ministry of Education announced the expansion of the Liberia Education Advancement Program (LEAP), specifically as a key measure in tackling Covid-related learning loss

Launched in 2016 by the Government of Liberia as the Partnership Schools for Liberia, LEAP started as a three-year pilot scheme to test if a PPP model could accelerate improvements in the country’s primary public education system after it had been decimated by 14 years of civil war and the Ebola health pandemic

Bridge Liberia, a NewGlobe program, has been a major partner in LEAP from the beginning And from the beginning, LEAP has focussed on results Its goals include the need to: Establish evidencebased interventions to increase optimal student learning outcomes

Improvements have been clear In Bridge Liberia-supported schools, 81 percent of students who joined in the first grade and have now spent 2½ years in a Bridge Liberia-supported classroom are proficient or basic readers, compared to only 33% of students in traditional public schools.

So it made perfect sense for the Liberian Government to take a program that was already a success and expand it further to combat the impact of covid The expanded LEAP now covers 525 public primary schools in all of Liberia’s 15 counties, giving an additional 60,000 students – 130,000 in all – access to quality education and the opportunity to build a better future Some 70% of LEAP schools are now supported by Bridge Liberia Minister of Education, Professor D Ansu Sonii, said:

“We are proud of the decision we have made to expand our public education partnership program across the country. Liberia has many challenges and we believe that it is only with an educated population now, not in generations to come, that we will overcome them and build a safer and more prosperous future for our people.”

The Education Ministry has now gone further In February it launched an Education Sector Analysis, which will lead on to an Education Sector Plan, due in August That Plan will govern and manage Liberian education for the next 5 years

LEAP is among the key programs forming part of the sector review and plan development process

Strikingly, the drive by Liberia’s Government to use an expanded LEAP in tackling learning loss fits perfectly with the priority solutions promoted by the World Bank, UNESCO, and UNICEF report It starts by highlighting the need for accurate data Such datagathering and analysis has been at the center of LEAP and the work of Bridge Liberia from the beginning

All teachers and school leaders are equipped with a specially-designed tablet which provides LEAP leaders with an enormous amount of real-time data, from attendance to lesson completion and students’ exam results Progress is monitored and recorded

Other “proven techniques” for promoting foundational learning which governments are urged to adopt include extending instructional time, making learning more efficient through targeted instruction and the use of structured pedagogy All are features of LEAP

LEAP schools were the first in Liberia to teach a full school day and LEAP students spend nearly an hour a day longer on academic learning than their peers in other schools Ahead of the expansion of LEAP, Bridge Liberia worked with the Education Ministry to retrain nearly 1,500 government teachers to use modern child-centered pedagogy and technology

The retraining priorities the need for teachers to check on every child’s learning, helping those who are struggling through one-to-one guidance and responding with feedback which accelerates learning

Liberia’s Government has responded to the challenge of covid-related learning loss by focusing on solutions already proven to work, driven by data and with a focus on student outcomes, all supported by scientifically-developed pedagogy and thorough teacher training

It is a blueprint not just for recovering learning loss, but for the transformation of schools and of educational outcomes for Liberian children.

LEAP Forms Part of Government’s Education Sector Analysis

In his SONA, the President spoke about the role of teachers in developing the country’s prospects

“For Liberia to develop, we must develop the minds of our youths We must train our teachers so that they themselves will be able to train the minds of our youths curriculum training was provided to 1,250 teachers and caregivers who have since returned to their places of assignment in Sinoe, Maryland, Grand Kru, Rivercess, River Gee & Bomi

The Ministry of Education, the regulator of all school activities in the country, invited various education stakeholders to review activities in the education sector which will inform a strategic plan that will govern and manage the sector for the next 5 years

The Joint Sector Education Plan (JSER) is closely watched by foreign multilateral and donors who use it to determine the government’s priorities in the year ahead; and allocate funding accordingly

The Education Sector Analysis which is done every five years is intended to review challenges and progress in the sector while informing authorities and stakeholders about where the gaps are, strengthening partnerships and identifying new opportunities After a presentation of findings were given by UNESCO and IIEP, the Ministry of Education immediately launched the Education Sector Plan (ESP) and asked various sector specialists to support in the development of this essential document The ESP is expected to be completed in August 2022

Government education partners like those in the Liberia Education Advancement Program (LEAP), which is now in its sixth year, is amongst the key programs forming part of the sector review and plan development process

The LEAP Program is a public-private partnership that delivers 100 percent tuition-free primary education across all

15 counties in Liberia from early childhood education through grade six.

The LEAP Program was designed to improve school management and accountability, enhance teachers and school administrators ability to deliver quality learning outcomes and optimize delivery models that the Ministry of Education can apply throughout all of Liberia’s public schools

Recently, H E President George Weah reported in his 2022 fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) reaffirming his commitment to education and highlighting that: “Under the 2022 National Budget, we intend to increase spending in education so that all the interventions we are making can lead to us transforming the sector from mess to best ”

The Education Sector Review follows the Government’s expansion of the LEAP program at the end of 2021; which allotted additional 179 schools to Bridge Liberia This coincided with a large-scale teacher training initiative by Bridge Liberia supported by the Ministry of Education and the Chairs of the House and Senate committees

The social enterprise collaborated with the Ministry of Education to train teachers with special focus on teaching principles, techniques, and technological skills that a contemporary teacher needs for the effective delivery of learning materials in the classroom

LEAP is one of the Government’s core programs to support and train teachers Government teachers in the Bridge Liberia supported schools are highly trained and well resourced when compared to their counterparts from other government schools They are expected to teach using techniques and technology that has been carefully designed to improve learning for students.

One specific skill is the use of technology. All teachers in the Bridge Liberia program use technology as a teaching tool which is used for lesson planning, tracking of attendance, following performance to assess data of classroom activity. It makes classrooms transparent and in all the nooks and corners of the country, it can be seen what activity is taking place.

These continuous efforts toward enhancing the education system of Liberia supports the president’s vision of providing quality education to the country’s youthful population

As the President further stated in his SONA:

“Providing quality education to our future leaders has remained a paramount priority of my Administration I am pleased to report that we have made great strides in improving literacy and other learning outcomes in the educational sector, with milestone achievements in the areas of Access, Quality and System Transformation”

Currently there are four partners in the LEAP with Bridge Liberia the largest partner, supporting over 70% of schools

Bridge Liberia Replaces Black Boards at all Supported Schools

7thFebruary2022

Monrovia Bridge Liberia has embarked on a massive renovation and replacement of blackboards across all its supported schools in the country.

The renovation exercise, according to Bridge Liberia, is to ensure that all government schools supported by the social enterprise are attractive, and conducive for effective teaching and learning

The black boards replacement project which began in January 2022, is expected to be completed by the end of February

The renovation and replacement of blackboards at Bridge Liberia supported schools comes after the expansion of the Liberia Education Advancement Program (LEAP) of which Bridge Liberia is the largest partner

In December of 2021, the Ministry of Education expanded the LEAP and allotted additional 179 schools to Bridge Liberia, bringing the organization’s supported schools to 350, now covering Liberia’s 15 counties

As a partner to the Liberian Government, Bridge Liberia supports the Ministry of Education to improve learning and teaching within public schools; providing a better future for Liberia’s youth

The revamping of these public schools in the country guarantees the Liberian Government a decent learning environment for all students in schools supported by the social enterprise

About Bridge Liberia

In 2016, Liberia’s President and its Ministry of Education announced Partnership Schools for Liberia (PSL), an innovative public-private partnership designed to transform the primary public education system Eight education providers – with proven track records in delivering high-quality education – were paired with public primary schools across Liberia; while teachers remained on the Government payroll

After a change of national Government, PSL became the Liberian Education Advancement Program(LEAP) LEAP is now in its six years, with four remaining providers Bridge Liberia is the largest provider with the greatest number of schools allotted and is delivering statistically significant learning gains

Bridge Liberia is currently supporting government schools in all of Liberia’s 15 counties especially in some of the most remote and hard to reach areas