Education project response to the Ebola crisis: USAID/Girls’ Opportunities to Access Learning (GOAL) Plus

• In Event: An education response to the Ebola health crisis in Liberia

Abstract

The GOAL (Plus) Projects support greater access to a successful primary education (enrollment, regular attendance, and completion), especially for girls. GOAL Plus is offering scholarship packages to 6,037 girls in Grades 1-6 at 60 schools in Bong, Lofa, and Grand Bassa counties, including 502 support kits delivered to their teachers, PTA capacity building and community grants to improve the learning environments of schools, and other supplemental activities to support girls’ attendance and learning. The 2014-15 year of GOAL Plus (2014-15) was planned to solidify the well documented gains and support sustainability of the key interventions. What is now not known, however, is the effect of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak on the momentum of school and community improvements in supporting their girls’ education and how resilient they will prove after a 6-month disruption in education and in the society as a whole.
Following the annual preparations for schools’ re-opening, GOAL Plus established safety protocols for travel to, and re-engage with the 59 project-supported communities in three counties during the school closure. Re-engagement included provision of WASH supplies and reinforcement of health messages; assessment of school conditions and staff status; and assessment of the readiness of PTAs and parents to support clean up at the school, formation of mentor-led girls’ clubs and use of the project-provided mini-libraries with tutorial support. The project will provide training and coaching for the girls’ club leaders, mentors, and tutors to use the mini-libraries for reading; and training and coaching for PTAs on school clean-up and improvements for re-opening. It is expected that continued engagement with the students and PTAs will mitigate losses in enrollments and learning due to the schools’ closure and that sustainability of the interventions will not be diminished. It is additionally expected that the community populations, including students, teachers, principals, PTAs, and leaders, will maintain the hygienic WASH practices emphasized during the Ebola response. Results of the field assessments and resumption of activities through community re-engagement will be reviewed for future guidance.

Authors

• Charles Howard Williams, American Institutes for Research (AIR)

• Miriam White, USAID/Liberia