On Saturday, The Government of Liberia, with funding from the European Union & Government of Sweden through the Youth Rising project, concluded a three (3) days Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) training for 33(thirty three) teachers teaching Math and Science in 11 (eleven) primary high schools across Montserrado.
The training conducted by the Pratical Education Network (PEN) is part of the many capacity building trainings by the Youth Rising project, will improve the learning outcomes of teachers by infusing the MIT-style “learning-by-doing” to enable hands-on science and math regardless of resource constraint. PEN will employ a blended mode of teaching in which the first training modules of “in-person” has been completed and they will continue the delivery of other models via an online learning management system and live video conferencing.
While visiting the Booker Washington Institute in kakata on Friday, Minister Ansu Sonnie – Minister of Education, D. Zogar Willson – Minister of Youth and Sports along with other government officials who all paid a courtesy visit at the TVET Center for Professional Training Research and Development (TCPTRI) where the STEM training was taking place.
During the visit, Minister Sonnie emphasized the need for Liberians including parents, teachers and students to take TVET seriously as a career course and not an option for High School & College dropouts “TVET is the track, TVET is not a substitute, TVET should not be subordinated”.
Ms. Sangay Freeman – Director of STEM at the Ministry of Education expressed her thanks and appreciation to the government of Liberia, the European Union and Government of Sweden for their support in the ongoing STEM training. She explained the importance of the training for Primary and high school teachers and how it connects TVET & STEM. Additionally, she joined the minister of education to emphasized the importance of science & TVET and how TVET can contribute to economic growth & self-substance foe youth and other Liberians.
For the part of the international consultant conducting the training (PEN) Practical Education Network, they stressed the need for STEM to be more practical and localized as well as using local materials for teaching of STEM and making it locally relevant.
