Bopolu — As part of the preparation to resume the reintroduction of citizenship education in schools beginning Academic Year 2022-2023 - schools administrators and teachers from five pre-pilot schools (Bomboma, Henry Town, Zuo, Hilllton Doidee, and Bey-Yomo) participated in a three-day (August 17-19, 2022) training to acquire teaching skills to effectively deliver lessons on the National Curriculum on Citizenship Education. UMOVEMENT with support from Democracy International (DI) USAID-funded Elections and Democracy Activity (EDA) organized the is conducting the training in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.
The objective of the training is to equip teachers with the requisite skills to teach learners who for over three decades will begin learning civics in Liberian schools. On April 25, 2022, the Government of Liberia at an official ceremony reintroduced civic education in Liberian schools.
Through DI, UMOVEMENT is supporting the Ministry of Education rollout of Liberia's National Curriculum on Citizenship Education and improving school administrators and teachers' content knowledge and teaching skills to effectively deliver the curriculum and textbooks within public primary schools to enhance students" civic skills, attitudes and behaviors.
Key topics covered include Multiples Intelligent (pathways to learning), development of a medium-range plan and daily lesson plan using the National Curriculum on Citizenship Education and the National Competence Based Curriculum, development of the Medium Range and Daily lesson plan template, writing good lesson objectives, strategies in teaching civics education using the National Curriculum on Citizenship Education, Assessment and Evaluation, classroom management, instructional methodology, teacher professional standards and ethics, gender bias and school administration.
During the opening of the training, DI Civic Education Program Officer Varnetta Johnson-Freeman recognized the sacrifices of teachers in Liberia and recounted EDA support through UMOVEMENT and MoE to empower teachers to better teach civics to students. According to her, DI sees supporting students at the foundational level as critical to building their civic consciousness in school to become better citizens and leaders.
For his part, Mr. Latta Bemah (Resident DEO), expressed gratitude to the government and people of the United States of America through USAID for providing funding for the implementation of the EDA project within primary schools across Liberia. He stressed that Gbarpolu is fortunate to be among the pre-pilot counties, admonishing participants to take advantage of training knowledge and serve as coaches for their peers in their respective schools, who didn't form part of the training. "It was during the 70's and up to the late 80's that civics was taught only at the lower secondary level (Grade-7-9)", the DEO concluded.
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Meanwhile, at the end of the training, each school received copies of the full civics textbooks for grades 1-6, the national curriculum on citizenship education, and teacher roll books were provided to the participants for lesson planning and teaching purposes within their respective schools beginning September 5 - opening of schools. The textbooks are designed with grade-specific titles: grade 1 - Citizenship Education (Love, Respect & Work Together), grade 2 - Citizenship Education (One People, One Nation, One Country & One Liberia), grade 3 - Rights and Responsibilities, grade 4 - Democracy and Governance, grade 5 - Citizenship Education, Population, Family and Social Protection, and grade 6 - Natural Resources and Development - while each participant received a certificate for their participation.
The next round of EDA teachers and school administrators' training will take place in Nimba (Saclapea) from August 25-27 and Montserrado (Monrovia) from August 29-31, 2022 respectively.
