KAKATA, Margibi – In an effort to rehabilitate Liberia’s education system, the Kakata Rural Teacher Training Institute in Margibi has graduated the first batch of post-war B-Certificate teachers.

Over the weekend, 91 teachers graduated from the pilot program that was rolled out by the Ministry of Education with funding from the European Union.

It is the first B-Certificate teacher training program since the end of Liberia’s civil war.

According to the program coordinator, Nuwo Kellen, the program was established to beef up the government’s effort in professionally training specialized junior secondary school teachers for two academic years and subsequently place them in schools across the country.

“The B-Certificate program existed before but was shut down due to the civil unrest in Liberia,” Kellen said. “Later, it was reactivated after a partnership agreement between the Government of Liberia and the European Union.”

The B-Certificate pilot program was launched in April 2016 with 100 in-service teachers from all counties initially participating in the project.

The trainees included 25 females and 75 males who were trained in four subject areas including mathematics, natural science, social science and language arts. The trainees were also equipped with special information & communication technology skills.

Serving as keynote speaker, Margibi’s Senator Oscar Cooper said Liberia must prioritize human resource development through quality education and better health care in order to continue to develop in the post-war era.

“If we value education, we must pay the teachers well to keep them in the classrooms,” he said.

“Until we in the legislature realize the need to allocate an appropriate budget to better compensate teachers, they will go for other better opportunities.”

Also speaking was Shadrach Kerl, the director of the Kakata Rural Teacher Training Institute, who said stakeholders should be concerned about the learning environment at the teachers training institute and not just turn out to witness the graduation exercises.

“Take the time to come to [Kakata Rural Teacher Training Institute], [Zorzor Rural Teacher Training Institute], [Webbo Rural Teacher Training Institute] and see the interaction amongst the trainers and trainees and not just to turn out for the pageantry,” he said.

Romelle Horton, deputy minister for instruction at the Ministry of Education, expressed confidence in the new graduates and stressed the government’s commitment to having more professionally trained teachers in the school system.

Horton said the government, in partnership with the European Union, has secured the needed funding to continue the B-Certificate program at KRTTI to gradually replace a larger number of junior high teachers who hold the C-Certificate qualification required for an elementary teacher.

Featured photo by Emmanuel Degleh