WHAT WE DO

A Liberian classroom before Liberia Reads!

THE PROBLEM

Liberian Education is in Crisis

Since a 14-year civil war that began in 1989, Liberia's young are threatened with ignorance and have little means of developing their potential. Extreme poverty, Ebola, Covid-19, and underfunded schools have exacerbated this situation. Most importantly though, children who do not know how to read will always struggle to learn. Today, "50% of all youth in Liberia between the ages of 15-24 are considered illiterate", (UNICEF Report, 2017) and "two thirds of all girls do not have basic reading skills", (Saaim W. Naame, former Dean, Graduate School of Education, University of Liberia, 2017).

Schools cannot teach reading well because many primary school teachers can't read well themselves and have little knowledge of reading pedagogy. In 2015-2017, the Ministry of Education administered language arts and mathematics tests to government elementary teachers across the country. The results: only 5% passed both tests; 44% scored 40-69%; and 51% failed, scoring below 40%.

Increased school enrollment, more and better books, and a lower student-teacher ratio can't help children learn if teachers do not know the subject matter. Teachers want to do better, but often don't have the knowledge to do so. They, like their students, are eager to learn.

THE SOLUTION

Liberia Reads! Works to Break This Cycle

The Liberia Reads! Association of Literacy Educators (ALE) does the following:

Delivers an intensive 10-day remedial curriculum to Liberian teachers designed to meet their specific language and educational needs;
Uses a specially designed K-3rd grade curriculum for daily 2-hour classroom reading instruction;
Provides every 1st-3rd grade classroom a set of guided readers for students, teacher read-aloud stories and a classroom library, and every kindergarten classroom with African ABC wall cards, vocabulary cards, reading manipulatives, and teacher read-aloud stories;
Gives every 4th-6th grade classroom a Liberia Reads to Learn reading lab;
Trains replacement teachers, provides refresher training and follows up with classroom monitoring and coaching as long as the school remains in the program;

Today, 7,000 children are in the 7-year Liberia Reads! course in 47 schools. Each year, more schools and more students are added.

A Current Liberia Reads! Classroom