MONROVIA – The Ministry of Education (MOE) has taken a giant step to improve the skills of teachers who teach reading to young students. On July 23rd, the MOE signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Liberian Association of Literacy Educators (ALE) to train in-service teachers who want to improve their skills in teaching reading.
The ALE has created a cost-effective and accessible program to give teachers the necessary skills to teach children to read well. At the end of the training, teachers will receive the Teaching Early Grade Reading Endorsement (TEGRE). The TEGRE curricula will focus on the major pillars of reading: phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Teachers will be taught many hands-on activities to further their knowledge of the above pillars that can be then applied to the actual classroom experience.
The TEGRE is different from the C-Certificate in that it is shorter, less expensive, and focused specifically on the area of reading. The MOE-endorsed curricula will be divided into three modules: Phonological Awareness and Phonics, Fluency and Accuracy, and Vocabulary and Comprehension, each offering 30 hours of classroom instruction. Modules will be offered on four consecutive Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Teachers who successfully complete all three modules will receive an endorsement certification from the MOE.
All modules will be taught by certified ALE trainers who themselves have undergone over 180 hours of intensive training in early grade reading pedagogy.
The tuition for each module will be US$20. In addition, a registration fee of US$10, required before the beginning of each module, will cover administrative fees, a Module Materials Packet with all necessary hand-outs, and a Module TAKE-AWAY designed to be used in the classroom.
For the 2019-20 school year, pilot sites will be in Margibi and Bong Counties.
The Association of Literacy Educators is a Liberian NGO with a mission to improve the reading knowledge and teaching skills of primary grade teachers using Liberia Reads! methodology. Liberia Reads! is a highly effective, low cost curriculum specifically developed by Geri Melosh, a former Peace Corps teacher, for Liberian educators. An independent assessment of Liberia Reads! students found that 73% of assessed 3rd graders met or exceeded international reading benchmarks.