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More than a year after the last Liberian Education Assistance Project (LEAP) in-service workshop, dozens of primary school teachers and principals are practicing what they learned at the sessions, building on and adapting those methods and most importantly, teaching others how to plan and implement developmentally appropriate lessons, using locally available materials for a nurturing classroom environment. Public school teachers were committed to professional development, though they were not paid for 11 months (they received their January 2002 checks in November).

In November 2002, two U.S. trainers visited 42 schools of LEAP-trained teachers in five counties, interviewed 26 LEAP-trained teachers at length, held teacher meetings in two counties and came away with some recommendations for how to build on this foundation for good early childhood education.

Background
Since 1999, Friends of Liberia has sent U.S. primary school teachers and early childhood educators to Liberia annually in July to hold three-week in-service workshops for primary school teachers and their principals. The LEAP workshops are designed to familiarize teachers with interactive and developmentally appropriate teaching methods, levels of curriculum, lesson planning and other strategies to make their teaching more effective.

In three annual workshops, 127 teachers and principals were trained, usually in school teams. They came from six counties in central Liberia: Bong, Nimba, Margibi, Bassa, Bomi and Montserrado. Eight participants had been trained to be co-trainers, working alongside their U.S. counterparts to teach other adults what they had absorbed from the workshops and their own experiences implementing new teaching techniques in the classroom. After 2001, the "co-trainers" had been convening meetings semi-annually by county to network the "LEAP-trained" teachers and enable them to share classroom practices that worked best.

The July 2002 workshop would have allowed the co-trainers a significant role in teaching the workshop. It was designed to strengthen the skills of the corps of co-trainers toward a five-year goal of having the workshops run entirely by a Liberian team of trainers. In April 2002, dissident forces overran the area and the campus of Cuttington College, where the workshops were held. The subsequent looting and displacement of the population made it impossible to ask teachers to travel either from the United States or from neighboring counties. Throughout the crisis, the U.S. LEAP planners were able to communicate with training leaders through e-mail from the capital city, Monrovia, and encourage the teachers who could to continue meeting and supporting each other.

In the fall of 2002, security conditions had improved enough to consider sending an assessment team to gauge the longer-term impact of the short-term in-service intervention on practices in Liberian classrooms. In conducting school observations, the visiting teachers sought to determine whether trained LEAP teachers and principals, some of them trained three years previously, were still using the concepts and methods they learned in the workshops. The teachers also planned to give support where possible to the teachers using the new practices, further train the trainers, gain Ministry of Education acceptance of the principles of the LEAP training program and help the Liberian training team formalize their teamwork by forming a non-governmental organization (NGO) to maintain and expand the LEAP teacher development program.

The following are the findings of Dr. Joan Safran Hamilton and LEAP Administrator Stephanie Vickers in a three-week visit during November of 2002. Stephanie Vickers filed the following report.

Scope of Work
On a three-week trip that began Nov. 2, we visited 42 schools whose teacher and/or principal had participated in LEAP workshops. We did extensive interviews about practice with 26 teachers, who were chosen according to their availability from among the schools we observed. We conducted two county forums, in Gbarnga and Buchanan, which were organized by co-trainers in the way LEAP follow-up meetings were planned. Though county forums have been held in three areas before, travel restraints dictated that we would meet in Buchanan and Bong County. We invited teachers from Montserrado along with all participants from Grand Bassa to the former and participants from Margibi, Bomi Hills, Nimba and Bong to the latter. Bomi County has suffered the brunt of fighting and school has rarely been in session since 2001. LEAP teachers have only heard from the trained Bomi teachers who have fled to the capital. We also visited the minister of education, Evelyn Khandaki, and other senior-level officials of the Ministry of Education, the U.S. ambassador, U.S. AID mission and officials of Mercy Corps and UNICEF to seek support for early childhood education.

A significant amount of time was spent working on establishing a local educational NGO, to be called LET (LEAP Extension Team), which would formalize the work of the co-trainers in coaching their fellow teachers and sustaining the networking started by the workshops. We were accompanied on the three-week mission by Ernest Emmanual Shaw, I, a local cleric and elementary school principal from Johnsonville (rural Montserrado County) who has served as the co-administrator of the LEAP project since 2000 and will serve as Registrar for LET.

I will share a sample of the conditions we found in 42 primary schools during the extended Liberian emergency and the findings of a personal survey of 26 of the teachers who participated in LEAP. The findings of our school visits and teacher surveys show the need for ongoing teacher-training and professional support in Liberia and the potential for long-term partnerships with this network of teachers. Our recommendations for more training and other teacher supports are based on these findings.

School Observations
General Findings:
Principals, whether LEAP-trained or not, are interested in what is going on in LEAP classrooms. LEAP trained teachers feel supported by their principals. All but two teachers interviewed (26) said that their principals visited their classrooms often and supported what they did in their classes. Many teachers reported that the principals visit classrooms nearly daily and watch what is going on. This outcome had been an objective of inviting principals to the LEAP training, even though most of them did not teach in the primary grades. In the two cases where principals were not as well supported by their principles, the principal had not been to the workshops. In one dramatic episode, a teacher was driven from the school by a principal who considered the materials she received at workshops her pay but in other cases, the teachers had managed to explain what they had learned and persuaded the principal that the change in style was worthwhile.

Teachers, many whom had years of experience before the training, said that after their LEAP training, they observed that students are talking more about lessons and raising their hands more to contribute. One school set up an incentive program to reward students who do well. Parents thanked the teachers at this school for what they are doing now with their children. The principal thinks more children are attending school since the training he and his teacher received. This was a common belief among teachers and principals interviewed, that trained teachers are attracting more students to their classrooms.

Some of the teachers reported feeling that teaching is easier with new ideas that work (junk box, use of local materials, less note taking, more hands-on teaching and more singing throughout the day and in all subject areas). Some teachers said that teaching was more fun and that they liked teaching more. Classroom confidence was apparent in many of the teachers we observed. LEAP techniques have made it easier for one teacher to get in touch with his students. Another change one teacher has seen is that in the past some of his students were passive and stubborn but they are more responsive now. So both teachers and students have changed and both groups appear to like that.

In three of the counties affected by the fighting last spring (Bong, Margibi and Nimba), some younger students had not returned to school because parents are worried about their children's safety. Nevertheless, in half the schools visited, classes were full because parents wanted their children in classrooms with trained teachers. Nursery and ABC classes tend to be larger, ranging between 20 and 110.

Money is scarce generally in Liberia and schools were still charging fees when we visited. Even in schools that do not charge fees, schools require students to wear uniforms and buy books. This is probably the biggest obstacle to children attending classes.
It should be noted that at the end of 2002, the Ministry of Education announced that all children would be required to go to school, even though public school teachers had not been paid for 10 months (January paychecks came in November). This will add to class size and the burden for teachers working in Liberia. The Ministry seeks to mandate free education for all children. But if the Ministry does not find a way to support schools, school fees are necessary to sustain schools. As it is, teachers have to take two and three jobs to support themselves and their families, a situation that severely limits the time they have for school preparation.

Bai Rogers, a food security official for Concern Worldwide Liberia, told the visiting teachers that an estimated 60 percent of Liberian children in rural areas are not in school. Many of those who come to school in rural areas walk more than an hour to get there.

Teachers make their own resources, a practice that was emphasized at the LEAP workshops. Homemade materials were widely evident in the schools we visited. For example, many had made posters for their walls on various subjects to make up for the lack of books. They had collected local materials for their "junk boxes," a LEAP practice that encourages children's curiosity and imagination. One teacher had collected discarded candy wrappers and told children to pretend they were Liberian five-dollar bills. She then used them to teach students to work with money and count by fives. Science teachers collected water bottles to use as rain gauges or containers for plant experiments. Teachers taught students to make models of cars, ships and buildings, with some amazingly imaginative results.

Many LEAP teachers in the counties affected by the April fighting, Bong, Margibi and Bomi, lost their manuals and other materials in the looting that followed and requested replacements. The said that they had come to rely on the manuals as reminders of what they had been taught and how it fit together. These materials were intended to help teachers plan lessons according to the Liberian curriculum. They are the only such material support most teachers had ever been given.

One workshop co-trainer fled Bomi Hills, where the fighting was intense, with only one bag, but her teacher manuals were in it. She began a new school in Monrovia and trained all her teachers in LEAP techniques.

The results of our surveys lead us to estimate that this training of colleagues has impacted a minimum of approximately 22,400 students in rural Liberia

Grand Bassa County: Buchanan Schools
We began our school visits in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, several hours by paved road east of the capital. Buchanan is a small city (100,000 population) but the second largest in Liberia, both by size and population. It has not been in the path of rebel incursions since peace was declared in Liberia in 1997.

Theo Frankyu, an elementary school principal and LEAP co-trainer, is in regular contact with the LEAP administrator, Ernest Shaw. He will be the co-administrator of the new teacher NGO. Highly motivated and respected in his community, he provided us with the best example of LEAP objectives in practice by county. He has held several county-wide teacher meetings over the last year in Buchanan. The Grand Bassa LEAP-trained teachers and others they have trained meet monthly to work and share ideas and then may come together every couple of weeks for other work. LEAP funds were used initially to support the county meetings. Theo reported that even in the absence of funding, the teachers brought food to share and even pitched in a few dollars to pay for supplies. The effect on teaching was obvious in the nine schools we observed. It should be noted that they all had prior notice of our visit, something that was not possible in other counties.

In the nine Buchanan schools, we took photographs, met with teachers, interviewed some and saw many children working in their classrooms. We were surprised with the number of LEAP-trained techniques in action. At one school, a LEAP participant had made a dramatic change in her teaching and attitude about being a teacher since the workshop she attended in 2001. She was using techniques in her ABC (Nursery) classroom that she learned in the July workshop and extended them to create additional developmentally appropriate activities with her students. This teacher, who had since been named head teacher in her kindergarten school, told us that she no longer was shy and had gained more confidence in the classroom. She had been given the responsibility for training other teachers at her school. This teacher also felt that more students are coming to her school since her LEAP training.

At another school, Central Buchanan Elementary School Soldiers Barracks, teachers had prepared a proposal for Friends of Liberia to assist the community in rebuilding its school. Teachers and students were gathering in a working army barracks and parents were reluctant to send their children to school there. The school houses eight teachers and 180 children in grades one through six. In spite of the dim lighting and absence of resources, the LEAP trained teachers were trying to practice LEAP techniques learned in July 2001 and students' attendance was high. One of the teachers showed us how he had used local materials to make his own balance scale. He had also trained other teachers in his school.

Co-trainer Frankyu has also trained other teachers in Buchanan with LEAP techniques and includes them in his frequent forums and meetings. He has trained his ABC/Kindergarten teacher and with the community's assistance built an ABC classroom for her students. This classroom is used as a model for his county teacher meetings.

Margibi County
This county is between Monsterrado County and Bassa County The April fighting extended southward to this county's principal city, Kakata, resulting in displacement of some of the population and a general concern for security. This has always been a crossroads town, with major roads leading west, where the rebel incursions are more frequent. Enrollment is down in some areas in Margibi County because parents are concerned for their children's safety and are reluctant to spend scarce money for school fees.

In Kakata, we visited a LEAP school that had been moved to an old market site after the April fighting and subsequent looting had damaged the school building. The market schoolrooms were poorly lit, had dirt floors were very crowded and poorly ventilated. Unfortunately we did not find a LEAP teacher still working there. We were told that most of the teachers had left after the problems in April and the one trained LEAP teacher was promoted to Registrar and is no longer in the classroom. It was apparent that no training had occurred because we did not see any signs of developmentally appropriate practices in any of the several classrooms we visited.

We found challenging conditions at other schools in the Kakata area as well. In some schools, LEAP-trained teachers had left for Monrovia or had transferred to private schools in the area, where the pay is more consistent. At John Joseph Elementary-Junior High, parents came together to help fix up the school after it was significantly damaged in the fighting. The LEAP-trained principal had fled, but the LEAP-trained teacher had returned to the school, which the new principal appreciated a lot.

School supplies are limited and many that schools had were looted after the April and May fighting. Students in many schools are asked to bring their own chairs to school.
There are other pressures on the war-affected counties as well. In a common phenomenon in schools where fighting interrupted the last year, enrollment drops after the second marking period because students are not in the grade they would have been in. Students who had their school interrupted in April the previous year expected to be promoted, even though they had not had the opportunity to do the work. Students would change schools to be promoted. In a situation where school fees are the sole support, this creates pressure to accept a social pass system or lose enrollment.

Bong County
Of the counties whose teachers had been invited to LEAP training, Bomi has been the most affected by war, where schools were not operational last year. It was not possible to travel there, though one Bomi teacher, who fled to Monrovia and opened a school in the capital, confirmed that conditions there had not improved. Bong was a close second in being affected by war. Widespread looting and disruption in Bong County schools have set back progress made since 1997 and left parents nervous about sending young children to school, especially at a distance. Attendance is down, especially in the early grades. The fragile economy has also suffered and money is more scarce than usual as families make up for losses suffered in looting. Some schools allow students to return and pay whatever the family can. Many residents left the county altogether, many to the capital, some to the next county north, Nimba, and some to Ivory Coast, which has since been disrupted by fighting. A school in the large displaced person camp in the county has attracted Bong students who are not refugees because the education is free. There is also a general belief that schools in camps run by international organizations have better schools.

Sugar Hill Community School, a K-12 school that had been largely assisted by Friends of Liberia and other outside groups because of its superior organization, was badly damaged by soldiers and looters. It may have been a target because of the material assets the school had collected. Its exemplary vocational program, with its tools, sewing machines, musical instruments and baking utensils, was particularly attractive to looters, many of whom may have been locals. Since the incursions, the vocational school has been suspended and general enrollment is down. Students are slowly returning, but many of the teachers who fled have yet to return. The trained teachers who have remained are trying hard to continue their LEAP techniques and have shared their materials and skills with many of the others on the Sugar Hill staff. Many of the teachers are starting over and asking students and parents to help with teaching materials. For instance, students were asked to bring big and small things for a lesson on size in the ABC classroom. The LEAP-trained principal at Sugar Hill told us how he has used LEAP ideas with upper grade classes and feels the age-appropriate techniques can be adapted for any class.

Nimba County
This county provided a wonderful example, not only of LEAP classroom practice, but also of the kind of school organization that LEAP trainers have espoused. In Nengbeh, the Parent-Teacher Association tended a cassava farm to raise money to build an addition on their school, G.A. Dunbar Elementary and Junior High School, led by Principal Stanley Bembo, a LEAP co-trainer. The community's parents are very involved in the school and they realize that the school is the community's property. This proprietary relationship makes them vigilant that school property remains in the school. The principal estimates that only about 10 percent of students in the town are not in school.

The students there also built a second eco stove for the school. This is an idea taught at LEAP workshops in the science and environmental track. Schools are encouraged to demonstrate the fuel conservation inherent in building a mud stove that restricts the amount of oxygen that gets to the fire. Unfortunately, schools have no longer have food provided by the international aid organizations, so the lesson is less central in community life. The eco-stove, demonstrated at LEAP workshops, is easily replicable technology whose principal material is mud. Several schools built stoves and served as a model of the technique for the community.

We also visited schools in the Ganta area and found some LEAP teachers still practicing LEAP techniques and sharing with other staff. One teacher had transferred to another school after her second year of LEAP work and introduced LEAP ideas to her new school. Her principal appreciates the difference in her teaching and asked to be invited to the next July workshop. One teacher who had left a government school to work at a private school saw us on the road and came after us to visit her at her new school where she was working with grades one and two and shared some of the songs that she had taught them already. School had only been in session about a month.

At another school in Nimba County, Dingamo, one teacher provided a dark example of the risk of change. She chose to leave her school after her LEAP training, when the principal suspended her pay, saying that fees and materials she received from the LEAP workshop were her salary. Her colleague who went to the same July 2001 workshop has trained another teacher in some of the techniques. He apparently was not subject to the same LEAP penalty.

Montserrado County
This county, which includes the capital city, Monrovia, was not an intentional target for LEAP workshops. As a county heavily influenced by the urban area and benefiting from the lion's share of any aid that exists for Liberia, Montserrado was not a target for workshops designed for rural educators. But over three years of workshops, several trainees have either been sponsored by alumni of their schools (in the case of Cathedral) or fled to Monrovia after they were trained. Such was the case for a teacher from Bomi County. We visited her school.

The teacher and co-trainer, Baindu Taylor, who fled to Monrovia from Bomi Hills, has set up a new school, Restore Future Elementary School, of approximately 70 students in grades one through four and has trained her staff of six with LEAP techniques. She told us, "I don't have to buy things. I can use local materials. The ideas for my lessons come easier. I used to have students take notes but now I let the kids be more involved in the lessons. The students are more relaxed and they like taking less notes."

Another example in Monrovia was at Cathedral School. A non-LEAP principal praised LEAP's influence when we visited. He said his LEAP-trained teacher is used to motivating others as she relates her lesson plans, presentation and evaluation. He said, "She is a standard of reference for other teachers."

Ernest Shaw, the LEAP administrator, was initially sponsored by Friends of Liberia to attend the workshop as a principal because his school, in the rural eastern part of the county, had been rebuilt by another FOL project. His leadership ability and experience working with the sponsoring group had made him a natural for administrator. Another of his teachers accompanied him to the first workshop and since then, he has taught all his teachers, regardless of grade in age-appropriate teaching and planning. Consequently, Ernest Shaw's school has been practicing LEAP techniques since 1999. The first group of primary grade students to benefit from LEAP-trained teaching is now in the 5th grade. Twenty-four are still in school, many of them girls, Shaw points out. He expects the real test of this difference will be in the 6th grade, when this class takes its first national exam. He and his teachers expect the results of teacher training to show in those results.

Teachers Training Other Teachers
School observations and in-depth interviews revealed that teachers who had understood and practiced what they learned at the LEAP workshops felt better about teaching and were sharing ideas with colleagues. Of the 26 LEAP teachers/principals interviewed, we estimate they trained 516 additional teachers during this and last school year. The results of our surveys lead us to estimate that this training of colleagues has impacted a minimum of approximately 22,400 students in rural Liberia.

We were told repeatedly about the workshops that LEAP teachers and principals held for other teachers in their own schools and for other teachers in their towns. In the previous school year, ten LEAP teachers and principals in the five relevant counties conducted 23 workshops. Twenty-one of the teachers interviewed said that they had shared ideas in their schools and answered questions and shared practices with colleagues.

The LEAP co-trainers had planned to hold two forums in each of their counties for teachers in the course of the school year. At the first meetings, teachers came together to share experiences, ideas and techniques. But due to the disruption and poor security situation after the April fighting, the second workshop was not held except in Grand Bassa, where there was no fighting. We heard many times from teachers in the other counties that they missed the opportunity to work together.

The frequent meetings of LEAP trained teachers that were conducted by Theo Frankyu in Buchanan provide a model of how the plan might work in other counties. The teachers obviously benefit from the retraining and support for their teaching. We saw many LEAP practices in the classrooms of other counties, but unfortunately there are still many teachers who have had difficulty changing their teaching style and carrying out what we had taught them at the workshops. Some were attempting to teach content they did not fully understand.

Some of the teachers were not as strong in their teaching because they had not had any training since year one of the workshops (1999). We found that the LEAP training improved each year that it was held, so that each year we were able to provide better resources and information for later participants. Other teachers did not have the support of a trained principal; some were in schools that had been disrupted by fighting and had supplies looted. Some teachers have left the profession and some, maybe 10 percent, have moved to private schools, where pay is more consistent. Several teachers who moved to private schools shared LEAP ideas with teachers in their new schools. In one such school, a new ABC class is being planned for the first time because the teacher is so enthusiastic about using LEAP techniques with the little children. One LEAP principal traveled to Monrovia to look for his nursery grade teacher who had fled in the fighting to ask her to return to his Bong County school.

During our visits to schools of LEAP participants, we found that the teachers and principals who were trained in 2001 were stronger teachers and better understood the concepts of early childhood and were teaching more developmentally appropriately and hands-on teaching. Partly this can be attributed to the increased experience of the trainers, who had been doing it for three years and better curriculum development by the trainers. We also saw evidence that the county teacher forums during the school year were supporting the learning from the July workshops. These semi-annual forums began after the July 2001 workshops. The example of Buchanan, where these meetings happened regularly, showed the effects in the teaching.

Training the Trainers
We held county workshops/forums in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, and at the Phebe Hospital Compound in Bong County to demonstrate the teaching of teachers. We used a variety of activities to model good teaching that can be used back in each teacher's classrooms. Joan and I shared our positive observations at each forum and shared some tips to help the teachers carry on their good work. We were particularly pleased at the attendance of 35 people in Buchanan some of whom had not been to a workshop but were trained by their LEAP colleagues at their schools.

At our forum at Phebe Hospital Compound in Bong County, Joan and I took over more of the training to respond to the teachers' request for phonics support and more teaching ideas. We also responded to the needs of upper grade teachers (2-7th grade) in attendance, many of them principals who had been to the workshops with their primary grade teachers, with a discussion on how to modify LEAP early childhood practices and hands-on principles for older students. For example, we led a discussion on how to teach 5th-grade English. Over 55 participants and visitors, including Deputy Minister Peter Ben and the Archdiocese Representative for Catholic Schools in Bong County, attended the forum.

All of the LEAP co-trainers met at the conclusion of the Phoebe forum. They set up a schedule of where they would meet to plan for county forums. Their next meeting is Jan. 17. County forums will be held at different times so the co-trainers can travel to assist each other if their schedules permit. Each co-trainer was given some funds to use for travel in his/her county and town. Co-trainers were also paid an additional fee to mentor their colleagues. We specifically suggested visiting LEAP participants who had not had the latest training or had not attended forums.

These co-trainers will be the nucleus of the LET teacher NGO. They will largely plan and implement the next workshop.

Conditions Facing Liberian Teachers
Teachers deal with difficult conditions in addition to not being paid and little government support. All teachers reported that they needed a second job in order to live and take care of their families. Revenue-creating activities included making market, tutoring, sewing, farming, selling cookies and selling clothes. Class sizes ranged in ABC/Nursery classrooms from 20 to 110 students, with an average of 48 children. These teachers are doing remarkable jobs with large classes, few materials and poorly lit and furnished classrooms. Yet so many who we interviewed said they enjoyed teaching more after their LEAP training and wanted more opportunities to continue their professional growth. The most frequently cited benefit was improved relationships with students and a feeling of more comfort in what to teach.

Most teachers received their January 2002, paycheck in November. In Nimbi County, teachers have not even received their January check. In many instances, when the check is delivered to the school or county office, a fee or surcharge of 8 percent had been taken out of the 800-Liberian-dollar payment. Basically many of the government teachers are volunteers. They also know how difficult it is for students to pay fees and make arrangements with students to attend and pay when they can.

Many teachers in Bomb, Bong and Upper Margi had to flee with just the clothes on their backs. Their classrooms were looted and we heard many complaints that their LEAP manuals and supplies had been taken. Some teachers have to daily take their pictures and supplies to school and put them up and take them down. If they left them, they would be taken or if another teacher used the room in the afternoon, the things would be taken down. Many schools had two or three sessions per day. Many of the teachers had worked to rebuild their junk boxes, wall hangings and teaching materials
One community built the foundation for an addition to the school only to have the zinc for the roof looted in May.

It is hard to predict what the effect on schools will be when the Liberian government's mandate for free universal education goes into effect in the next school year.

Ministry of Education
Our work in Monrovia involved two meetings with Minister of Education Evelyn Kandakai and her deputy ministers. On our first visit, she explained the new government mandate for compulsory primary education by September 2003 and the challenges the Ministry faces to carry out such a huge task. Also at the meeting was her deputy minister for teacher training. We had the opportunity to share what we had done with LEAP participants in 1999, 2000 and 2001 and what we had planned for our November 2002 visit.

Dr. Hamilton explained the need for Liberian educators to understand the concepts of early childhood education and developmentally appropriate teaching. We reminded the Minister that we had left LEAP training manuals with the Ministry in July 2001. The Minister asked to see the Early Childhood Manual, so we left a copy to be copied for others in her ministry to read before we returned at the end of our trip. On our return, she suggested that it might be possible to use the manual for training early childhood educators next year. She asked Dr. Hamilton to add a section on "Getting to Know Liberia" and asked whether Friends of Liberia could publish 5,000 manuals. She also suggested we meet with UNICEF to tie in other areas in the early childhood manual dealing with life skills. We stressed that use of the manuals would have to be in conjunction with training in order to be effective.

She agreed that LEAP-trained teachers should be a part of the training of other Liberian teachers. This acknowledgment is a step closer to getting certification and national recognition for our LEAP-trained teachers. I was asked by Deputy Minister Ben to write up a rational for certification to present to the MOE.

Minister Kandakai said, "Friends of Liberia is helping the education sector in Liberia to reach into the classroom to make an impact on the quality of instruction which is a very neglected area because most polices' interventions do not filter down to the classroom."

Paying for and training teachers to meet the needs of the Education Act for Compulsory Education in 2002 is a huge concern. Funding is supposed to come from the government and UNICEF.

The Minister was impressed at the number of LEAP teachers who were women and wants to include them in the international organization, Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), which is in thirty-three African countries. Its goal is to support girls' education. She suggested that the new local NGO, LET, be involved in FAWE's school of excellence and to help train other Liberian teachers

Finally, the Minister said she supports LEAP's formation of the local organization LET. With her support, we pursued the incorporation of a local teacher NGO. A Monrovia lawyer filed papers with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a letter from the Ministry of Education was sent to the Minister of Planning. As of the end of December, LET Administrator Ernest Shaw reported that he had not been given an audience with the Minister in charge of incorporation.

Meetings With Other Officials
We had a great opportunity to meet the newly appointed U.S. Ambassador, John Blaney III, and officials of Mercy Corps and UNICEF. LEAP's parent organization, Friends of Liberia, is well known in Liberia and welcomed by many. We were aware of an increased knowledge of LEAP and its teachers and principals and their hard work. We informed each of these different agencies that it was important to get their support for early childhood education. Ambassador Blaney had been under the impression that schools were not in session because teachers had not been paid. We were able to share with him how many of the teachers are "volunteers" and that schools are open, though struggling, and growing in size.

Conclusion and Recommendations
Our fact-finding activities discovered a viable network of primary school teachers who had engaged with the material from LEAP workshops. The fact that many of the most successful examples were among the third training class told us that investing in the training of trainers shows in the results. We were encouraged by the number of teachers conducting workshops for other teachers. We feel that LEAP teachers need more assistance with how to teach teachers, how to network with each other and how to mentor peers. Thus we believe that a workshop in July 2003 should aim to reteach, and retrain LEAP trained teachers and principals with a goal of training in-depth.

Changing the conditions in which teachers teach is a role for government and large international NGOs. It will take more than a mandate to improve the education of children. An important part of the solution will be more training and support for those who are in the classrooms. LEAP will offer a workshop in July 2003 that aims to strengthen the skills of the LEAP co-trainers who have formed LET. We believe this indigenous NGO will lead to more teachers and schools to the successful teaching of young children. It is not easy to travel and work in Liberia, but the short-term intervention program of Friends of Liberia, LEAP, is making a difference. In spite of the difficult conditions and lack of government support for schools, many teachers and principals are doing great things for the children of Liberia and we need to continue our support of rural education.

Toward that end, we make the following recommendations:

· The co-trainers of the LET organization should largely plan LEAP's 2003 workshop. The role of U.S. trainers will be to train these trainers to work with other adults.
· The 2003 workshop should review, refresh and retrain teachers who have already been to one LEAP workshop and should include teachers whom they have trained.
· Peer mentoring and county follow-up meetings should follow the example set in Grand Bassa County, when conditions permit.
· Another important element of training is discussion of how to involve the community in the success of the school. Teachers from successful schools should visit community meetings of other schools to describe the results.
· Friends of Liberia should support the activities of the LET teacher organization by helping it access funds and materials and capacity-building training.
· LET trainers should network with major education players, such as FAWE, and with NGOs doing education work to gather support for excellent primary school education. Part of their activities will be to network for more support for the earliest grades.
· Friends of Liberia should seek support for the publication of the revised Early Childhood Education manual. By capitalizing on the Minister's support for the principles it contains, the organization may be able to leverage funds for the publication of this manual and the training that should accompany its dissemination.
· LEAP teachers should improve and republish the hands-on science manual, the LEAP songbook and the phonics lesson plans and audiotapes. They should also create a math teachers manual to round out the curriculum.
· LET, LEAP, FOL and others should continue to educate Liberian officials about the importance of Early Childhood Education for the future of education in Liberia.
· FOL should continue to track the dissemination of the teacher training and assess other results, such as the national testing results of children affected by LEAP and the effect of early childhood education on the length of children's schooling.