Alternative Education in Liberia

• In Event: Innovative approaches to learning in low-resource and underserved communities

Proposal

Liberia has experienced shocks in its education system over several decades. The truncation of schooling during the civil war amassed a generation of youth with low educational achievement. According to the first post-war National School Census for 2005/2006, more than 80% of children between the ages of 6 and 17 were either conscripted by armed factions or prevented from pursuing normal life, including academic enrichment. This resulted in an excess of over-aged children at every educational level and the teaching workforce and school infrastructure were devastated. In 2014 – 2015, the Ebola epidemic further exacerbated the compounded challenges faced by the education system, and then the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 and lasting for several years, caused further interruption – all of which continues to increase and exacerbate the challenges of the out-of-school and overage learner population in Liberia. In 1998, The Ministry of Education (MoE) introduced the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) as an alternative mechanism to capacitate over-aged and out-of-school learners. ALP implementation occurred in all 15 counties by the end of 2011 but was followed by a period of decline.

From 2009 Education Development Center (EDC) supported the Ministry of Education (MOE), through funding from USAID, to implement alternative learning to support out-of-school children and youth in a variety of ways. The Core Education Skills for Liberia Youth (CESLY) provided non-formal and accelerated learning programs to over 17,000 youth in six Liberian counties. The work of CESLY was expanded through the Advancing Youth Project (AYP) launched in 2011 which added more direct policy work, institutional capacity development and livelihoods programming to the growing Alternative Basic Education curriculum and teacher training. The Accelerated Quality Education (AQE) Activity, launched in 2017 to support the MOE to sustain the ALP effort and address the over-age and out-of-school-children challenge.

Through an analysis of these programs, this presentation will include how alternative learning programs in Liberia have evolved over time, highlighting the shifting policy environment and impacts from shocks and stressors to the education system and the lives of out-of-school children and youth. The presentation will explore how the different forms of alternative education programs were used to support out-of-school children and youth over time and which components addressed relevant issues and where improvements could be made.

Author

• Amy Deal, Education Development Center EDC