Paris, France – Two Liberian educators, Assistant Education Minister for Teachers Education Advertus Wright and the Head of the UNESCO Liberia Office, Steveson Seidi, have presented progress Liberia has made in the UNESCO-China Funds-in-Trust(CFIT) project which is intended to enhance the ICT proficiency of Teachers in selected countries.
The forum which took place from the 19th to the 20th of April-2016, was intended to review progress made thus far, innovative strategies and challenges faced in the implementation of the project by the beneficiary countries.
Under the theme: Harnessing Technology for Quality Teachers Training, Minister Wright and Mr. Seidi said priorities have been placed in areas of capacity development for improved quality education, meeting the needs of teachers in line with the project demands and developing manuals for the program.
They disclosed that the Liberian country team has produced a Liberian ICT Competency Framework for Teachers, the ICT Equipment and Facility User Policy and the ICT Pedagogy Training Modules for Teacher Educators. These are useful documents in accelerating teachers ICT proficiency and education.
Assistant Minister Wright and Mr. Seidi said in addition to the documents and in an effort to harness technology and access for quality of learning at Teachers Training Institutions, they have developed an ICT Education Policy, and an ICT in Education Master Plan for Liberia’s Teachers Training Institutions.
They disclosed that the Liberian Team has plans to expand its activities to include Teachers College at the William Tubman University in Maryland County, a pilot project testing in select schools, set up additional labs at Teachers Training Institutions to accommodate increasing number of teachers and other refresher training programs.
Three Liberian institutions in ICT programs, the Starz College of Technology, the Stella Maris Polytechnic and LEAD have been added to the list of institutions to help accelerate ICT training for Liberian Teachers under the project.
The UNESCO-China Funds-in-Trust (CFIT) project was launched in 2012. The project has a budget of Eight Million Dollars donated by the Chinese Government for four years. The project countries are: Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Namibia, Congo, DR Congo, Liberia, Tanzania and Uganda.
The CFIT project is one of the initiatives of UNESCO to accelerate progress toward the attainment of improving the quality of education for teachers’ training in ICT. It intends to assist teachers with the competency of using ICT to improve the quality of teaching and learning.