Monrovia – Beneath the fine prints of a proposal to improve the educational system in Liberia is an ambitious deal that will see the government of Liberia pay over US$65 million over a five-year period to a private American firm.
Bridge International has successfully pitched its model as a technology-driven one relying on teachers reading standardised lessons from hand-held tablet computers but many see the plan as facing an uphill task in Liberia where many youngsters in both rural and urban areas still trek miles to school and many sit on the floors to learn, a nation where teachers have been trekking to the city for months and abandoning their classrooms and running after their pay-checks.
Bridging the Gap vs. the Liberian Reality
On paper, the Bridge plan which entails hiring education experts to deliver specific content to primary schoolkids for just under US$5 or US$6 a month on average; is likely to run into problems in Liberia, a nation slowly coming to grips with the after effects of a civil war and a brain drain which devastated an educational sector that could take years to repair.
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf once labelled the sector messy and despite having one of the largest annual budgets, the ministry which has changed ministers four times in the last ten years has been struggling to weather a stormy sea of critics and skeptics unsure that anything is salvageable under the current government. George Werner, the fourth minister to occupy the ship is hoping that his ambitious plan will do the trick.
“We have tried everything to change education in Liberia. From kindergarten to universities, we cannot explain the impact of the investments made in the last decade,” the Minister told FrontPageAfrica Monday. “Learning outcomes are dismal Teacher quality is lacking. Partnership Schools offers a glimmer of hope for our children.”
By turning to Bridge and possibly other private groups with similar leanings, Werner is hoping that the US firm, which pitches itself as the world’s largest education innovation company serving the 700 million families who live on less than $2 USD per day, can live up to what it has on paper and provide the highest quality education product to Liberian nursery and primary schools.
The pilot, according to Werner will create at least 70 tech jobs and other managerial positions and that school uniforms will be cheaper for parents who will not pay any fees.
Initial funding for the pilot, according to Werner is coming from The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) with support from the Chinese government. Werner explains that the government budget cannot afford such an ambitious plan but insists that Bridge wants good teachers rewarded.
“We agree. We’re still working out the details on housing and training. I think teachers will benefit a lot All the teachers’ training institutes will be computerised and teachers trained on how to use them.”
‘Still Trying to Raise Money’
According to its website, Bridge says it is a data-driven and technology-enabled program which uses smartphones and tablets via Learning Lab which enables it to monitor teacher and student performance in real time, constantly reviewing and revising to ensure that we are offering a world class education that will prepare our students for the 21st century.”
But first, Werner says the plan is far from going into full gear. “We’re still trying to raise money for it. Beyond the pilot requires lot legislation has to be worked out so we are not there yet.”
Werner says the pilot, said to be budgeted in the range of between US$10 to 13 million, is expected to be funded outside of government and will be independently evaluated. “We are looking at top academic institutions to partner with for the evaluation and are looking at the likes of Georgetown; the AME University has also expressed interest in participating. So we still have some ways to go.”
In reality, critics say the program faces a stern test in that many rural and urban schools lack electricity and safe-drinking water for students. Poor school structures also force many schools in areas across the country to shut down during the raining season because they simply do not have the resources to stay afloat.
This is one area, critics and opponents of the plan say, the minister and the government has not taken into consideration in its advocacy of the proposed plan and are falling short.
On paper, Bridge says it works outside the classroom, with governments and civil society organizations to create customized teacher training modules, English Language Learning curricula, and “pop up” schools for refugees and other vulnerable populations.
Bridge says its internal results of shown that pupils who attend the academy gain an additional .34 standard deviation on core reading skills and an additional .51 standard deviation on maths compared to their peers in neighbouring schools, based on USAID-designed exams administered by an independent monitoring and evaluation company – this translated into over 250 additional days of learning.
“Thanks to economies of scale, Bridge is able to charge just $6 a month per pupil on average with academies reaching operational sustainability after just one year.”
In Nairobi, Kenya, Bridge says its academy in the Mukuru slum, which was opened in 2009, has been successful and the program has expanded across Africa and Asia. With a mission of Knowledge for all, Bridge plans to educate 10,000,000 children across a dozen countries by 2025.
On the instructional side, Bridge says it invests in hiring world leaders in education to develop comprehensive teacher guidelines and training programs.
“Again, because of our highly efficient delivery mechanism (marrying talented individuals from each community with technology, scripted instruction, rigorous training, and data-driven oversight), Bridge is able to bring some of the world’s greatest instruction and pedagogical thinking into every classroom in every village and slum in the world.”
Under the public-private arrangement, the company will design curriculum materials from April to September 2017, while phase two will have the company rollout mass implementation over 5 years, “with government exit possible each year dependent on provided performance from September 2017 onwards.
Eventually the Ministry of Education is aiming to contract out all primary and early childhood education schools to private providers who meet the required standards over 5 year period. The program is poised to be possibly the largest and most ambitious privatisation attempt in Africa but may remain unconvinced.
Werner’s plan has gotten off the wrong foot and drawn some wrangle from several quarters, the most high-profile coming from Kishore Singh, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the right to education, who recently described the plan as “unprecedented at the scale currently being proposed and violates Liberia’s legal and moral obligations.”
The UN official and human rights expert noted that provision of public education of good quality is a core function of the State.
“Abandoning this to the commercial benefit of a private company constitutes a gross violation of the right to education,” said Singh.
For the foreseeable future, Werner is hoping that the plan which on paper has worked fairly well in Kenya and Uganda and aims to educate 10 million children across a dozen countries in Africa and Asia by 2025, specifically targeting low-income families, will pay off for Liberia.
But Dr. Chris Tokpah, an educator who holds a Ph.D in Program Evaluation and Measurement and a senior administrator in Higher Education, in a FrontPageAfrica Op-Ed, cautions that before proceeding with a pilot, questions raised by critics and stakeholders must be addressed.
“If we listen carefully, we just might find out they have legitimate concerns and that they love Liberia just as much, if not more, than we do.”
Dr. Tokpah is proposing a one-year hiatus to study and respond to the issues before a decision can be made about whether this is the way forward.
“By proceeding along the proposed path, we risk following the popular saying “in order to be sure of hitting the target, just aim and call whatever you hit the target.”