MONROVIA – The lead coordinator of the Improving Results in Secondary Education (IRISE) Project at the Ministry of Education, Mr. Abraham A. Kiazolu, has called on stakeholders, particularly politicians, to refrain from influencing the appointment of County Education Officers (CEOs) and District Education Officers (DEOs) if the education sector in Liberia is to be transformed.
In an exclusive interview with The Liberian Investigator on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, Mr. Kiazolu emphasized that appointments in the education sector should be based on merit rather than political connections. He noted that assigning individuals without the requisite qualifications to critical positions poses significant risks to the sector’s development.
Highlighting the impact of the IRISE Project, Mr. Kiazolu disclosed that the initiative received USD $40 million from the World Bank in 2018 to improve Liberia’s education sector. Through this funding, the project has trained teachers in specialized subjects, ensuring they are adequately prepared for classroom responsibilities. He stressed that not every college graduate is suitable to teach in a classroom setting, underscoring the importance of specialized training.
Based on studies conducted across several education districts, Mr. Kiazolu explained that many districts lacked high schools, leading to a significant increase in student enrollment in the few available institutions. He added that the deployment of gender coordinators in government-run schools has resulted in a significant rise in the enrollment of girls compared to boys.
However, recent findings indicate that many boys have dropped out of school in rural counties to engage in motorcycle riding, a trend Mr. Kiazolu finds concerning. He called for innovative strategies to bring these boys back into the classroom and stressed the need for continued support from the government and its partners, particularly the World Bank, to sustain the IRISE program.
The IRISE Project, funded by the World Bank, aims to assist the Government of Liberia in improving senior secondary education (grades 10–12) through innovative approaches that enhance access, quality teaching and learning, and system-building in a resource-constrained environment. The project focuses on improving teaching in senior secondary education, closing the access gap in secondary education, increasing completion prospects in secondary education for girls, leveraging technology for learning and digital skills, and building capacity through technical assistance, program coordination, monitoring, and management. It also includes a contingent emergency response component.
Open DevEd, contracted by SOFRECO, provides technical support to the Ministry of Education, the University of Liberia, and Tubman University in aligning teacher education curricula with national senior secondary curricula and WASSCE syllabi. The organization supports the adaptation of teacher training materials and practices to open educational approaches, leads and coordinates program activities and technical assistance teams, anchors technical assistance activities within the IRISE Project framework, conducts gap analyses, and offers technical advice in open educational resources. Additionally, it provides guidance for curriculum reviews, module revisions, and the development of training and teaching materials, as well as organizing curriculum and module validation workshops.
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