Age-Appropriate Learning Enhances Early Childhood Education in Liberia
Approximately 250,000 Liberian students out of 509,618 enrolled in ECE in 2016 were 6 years old and above. International research shows that students who are many years over aged for their grades are less likely to be literate; and more likely to drop out before completing basic education. While access to ECE has improved over the years, over-age enrolment continues to be a challenge, despite mass public awareness campaigns to sensitize parents, schools and communities about the importance of age-appropriate enrolment. Addressing this challenge is a priority of the Government of Liberia. The Government is considering alternative education approaches to address the needs of overage children including improving teacher quality and provision of age-appropriate curriculum-based instructional materials to improve learning outcomes at ECE level. These needs were recently highlighted though a survey which examined indicators of quality in several ECE schools carried out jointly by the MOE, th...