Government and partners hold Joint Education Sector Review
Education stakeholders gathered in Ganta City Nimba County on March 27 to March 31 for the Joint Education Sector Review (JESR).
Transforming Education, for National Development and Growth
is the theme for this year’s JESR with the overall objectives of transforming education to achieve national development and growth and achieving milestones in the social contract through the provision of quality, relevant, inclusive and gender-responsive education.
Bridge Liberia MD-Gbovadeh Gbilia presenting at the JSER
The JESR brings education stakeholders together to discuss challenges and opportunities of the Liberian education sector, while appraising the Sector’s annual
performance to find corresponding ways forward for the period under review.
The Education Sector Plan (ESP) is high on the agenda at this year's JESR, a five year document, prepared by the Ministry of Education and partners, which outlines the country’s vision and concrete transformative actions to further drive progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and better prepare learners for the challenges of the future.
Following the official opening by Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor on the first day, the meeting continued with presentations from various sectoral units, organizations and programs, giving the statuses of their various sections and highlighting their contributions to the development of education in Liberia.
Among those who presented was the Liberia Education Advancement Program (LEAP) a key education program supporting government schools in a multi-partnership educational model that among other indicators delivers 100 percent tuition free primary education throughout Liberia from early childhood education to grade nine.
Bridge Liberia Managing Director, Gbovadeh Gbilia, gave the status of the LEAP program, on behalf of the four partners; Rising Academy, U-Movement, Street Child and Bridge Liberia. Gbilia laid emphasis on the key indicators that the LEAP program is addressing for the sector. Learning outcome, tuition free schooling, capacity building of teachers, are few of the key indicators set for the LEAP Program and partners are reaching the benchmark, ensuring students benefit and gain knowledge to change their future.
As the government’s largest technical partner in the LEAP program, Bridge Liberia is supporting over 300 government schools, in all of Liberia’s 15 counties. This support ranges from capacity building of teachers, provision of learning essentials for the daily operation of schools, daily support and monitoring of school leaders, among others, which in return, improves learning gains for students in the Bridge Liberia ecosystem.
Assistant Education Minister for Planning, Research and Development, Hon. Dominic Kweme in an interview also explained how the LEAP program is supporting the education sector.
“The approach of the LEAP program is very unique to the Liberian education sector and it’s addressing lots of key indicators that are set for the sector. From the different assessment done by independent partners of the LEAP program and the International Institute of Education comparing the LEAP program result to other public schools has shown a clear difference of the level of learning outcomes specific to LEAP students and that of the traditional government public school system”.
The JSER is an annual event that allows stakeholders in the education community to gather and set the tone for the incoming education year.
