Over the years–through war and an epidemic– Liberia has experienced a serious loss of infrastructure that includes its education system. Inspired by New Orleans’ own rebuilding of its educational infrastructure, the Liberian government is welcoming school providers to enhance the country through a new plan called Partnership Schools for Liberia. Through this experiment, all Liberian children will have access to free education.
A New Orleans startup, TrueSchool Studio, is now stepping in to provide educational resources to Liberia and help relaunch failing schools. The company empowers educators in struggling education systems to reimagine and rebuild schools from the bottom-up.
The project also includes More Than Me, a Monrovia based charity and academy, which will operate six schools across Liberia. TrueSchool Studio will train 14 School Capacity Leads (SCL) through a proram developed and led by the startup called MTM University.
More than 20,000 students will be helped over the next two years by the program that aims to establish a model of teacher leadership development and teacher-led innovation.
“We are addressing this need by immediately expanding the More Than Me model of safety, health, and quality education…Within 5 years, we plan to reach 500 schools,” shared Amy Vreeland, founder and CEO of TrueSchool Studio. “We are also transforming the teaching profession in Liberia — we are building the next generation of visionary educators who will lead enduring change and improvement for students across the country. We’re not going to stop until Liberia serves as a model for the rapid improvement of a nation’s entire education system.”
Those interested in the progress of Partnership Schools for Liberia can follow along via #LiberiaIsASchool.