LICOSESS Takes Over CAN Leadership Academy Schools in 15-Year Deal

Published: October 19, 2026

MONROVIA — LICOSESS College of Education will run the CAN Leadership Academy School System’s three campuses for the next 15 years under an agreement with Opportunity Network Liberia. The deal turns schools serving about 1,690 students into training grounds for the college’s student teachers.

The memorandum of agreement, signed Aug. 3, transfers the academy’s academic and administrative management to LICOSESS, which will also handle its institutional and quality assurance functions. Opportunity Network Liberia, which founded the academy, keeps strategic oversight.

At the heart of the deal, CAN Leadership Academy becomes an official LICOSESS demonstration school. Trainee teachers will gain supervised classroom experience there, applying what they learn in their training to real classrooms.

Eric Wowoh, chief executive officer of CAN Leadership Academy, said the partnership is expected to improve classroom instruction, strengthen academic supervision and widen access to quality education in the three counties.

Benjamin Yele Wehye of LICOSESS College of Education said the partnership rests on academic excellence, professional management, transparency, accountability, child protection, financial sustainability, continuous teacher development, innovation in teaching and long-term institutional growth.

The Montserrado campus enrolls about 790 students, Nimba 500 and Bong 400. Together, the campuses have:

• 65 classrooms and 20 administrative offices
• more than 40 bathrooms with running water
• two 50 kVA standby generators, campus-wide water systems and Starlink internet
• about 2,000 student chairs
• science materials, multimedia teaching tools, musical instruments, and nine industrial tailoring machines for vocational training

The agreement also covers guest houses in Montserrado and Bong with more than 20 rooms.

LICOSESS plans to move its Patmelia Annex to the Jacob Town campus beginning with the September-November 2026 trimester, Wehye said. It will also move its Bong County operations from St. Peter’s Episcopal High School and expand its programs across all three counties.

The agreement creates a joint Partnership Council for oversight. It also introduces new systems for financial management, human resources, procurement and performance monitoring, along with stronger child safeguarding and quality assurance policies. The two institutions say they envision a single system linking early childhood, primary, secondary and teacher education.

The institutions held transition meetings with administrators, teachers, and support staff on July 30-31 in Jacob Town, Montserrado County; Gbarnga, Bong County; and Neigbein, Nimba County.

Preparations for the 2026-27 academic year are underway. They include recruitment, a free vacation and enrichment school, campus engineering and classroom readiness assessments, renovations, intensive teacher training, and admissions from nursery through grade 12.