Teacher Training Project Profiles

In Liberia, Practical Education Network (PEN) serves as one of the implementing partners, working with Education Development Center (EDC), in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MoE) to drive systemic change within the nation's classrooms.

The project is built on four strategic pillars: Recruit, Train, Lead, and Motivate. PEN is spearheading the Train pillar, leveraging our expertise to enhance the capacity of teachers nationwide, with a focus on making STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) lesson delivery engaging, effective, and accessible.

Through this partnership, PEN is democratizing practical, learner-centered education by adapting hands-on pedagogy to the local context and ensuring a national shift in teaching methods despite resource constraints.

The mission involves training approximately 1,955 teachers across Primary, Junior High, and Senior High levels, covering nearly every county in Liberia. To support this, PEN is developing localized, context-relevant teaching manuals for all pretertiary educational levels that provide teachers with specific, locally sourced hands-on activities for every topic in the national curriculum. Additionally, the project supports the development of specialized "Learner Labs" to foster dedicated environments for curiosity and experimentation.

By working in partnership with the Ministry of Education, PEN ensures its low-cost, high-impact model is integrated into national standards for long-term sustainability and government ownership. This collaborative effort builds a resilient foundation for Liberia’s future scientists, engineers, and leaders by making quality STEM education accessible across the country.

Practical Education Network (PEN) is advancing a new phase of hands-on STEM teacher training in Liberia as part of a United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) project. This initiative seeks to increase the number of students pursuing Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) by reshaping how science and mathematics are taught at the foundational level.

The project aims to use hands-on learning to shift the mindsets of students transitioning into second-cycle institutions, positioning TVET as a viable and interesting career and academic path. To achieve this, PEN deploys locally-sourced hands-on teacher training programs that equip STEM educators with the skills to make lessons practical. By utilizing locally available materials, teachers can deliver quality science and mathematics instruction even in schools that lack traditional laboratory equipment.

The project is being implemented in two strategic phases. During Phase One, PEN trained 30 teachers from Montserrado County in hands-on pedagogies. Phase Two builds on the success of the initial phase by identifying 10 outstanding educators from the original group to be trained in PEN's Essentials of Hands-on Learning model and further equipped as Master Trainers to train their peers, allowing the project’s impact to expand to 8 new counties across the country. It also supports the development of teacher resource manuals for classroom implementation.

Through this partnership, PEN is preparing young people to see technical and vocational education as a powerful pursuit for their futures. Ultimately, this project will increase Liberia’s progress toward meeting Indicator 4.4 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4: substantially increasing the number of youth and adults with relevant technical and vocational skills for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship by 2030.

Ashesi Education Collaborative seeks to build a network of exemplar institutions that share meaningful insight, stimulate engagement around relevant content, and empower individuals and groups in Africa to transform themselves, their surroundings and ultimately, the continent.

Ashesi University has led the way amongst African universities in its rapid response to shifting teaching and learning to online platforms. They have partnered with Practical Education Network to extend Ashesi's framework of transitioning learning to digital platforms by converting PEN’s teacher training to online modules for basic school STEM teachers. Through this partnership, teachers will be equipped with digital access to national curriculum-aligned, instructional content. They will also be equipped with requisite skills to continue deploying practical science content to students while schools are closed. Most importantly, through this partnership, each participant will be empowered (financially) to train at least one more teacher and this trickles down till a total of 100 teachers are trained. This cascading model will ensure sustained training for STEM teachers

ExxonMobil uses technology and innovation to help meet the world’s growing energy needs.

ExxonMobil is committed to inspiring and preparing students to pursue STEM careers. They encourage the pursuit of math and science through a variety of programs. By making a joint effort with other leaders and organizations, they put science and math fluency on the fast track.

ExxonMobil partnered with Practical Education Network to train 100 teachers in a two-year PEN Teacher Roadmap programme, an incentive programme designed to engage, encourage and reward STEM teachers along with a two-year plan, taking them from ground level into competent and innovative teachers while equipping them with entrepreneurial skills, abilities, and opportunities.

They also assisted in the printing and distribution of 2000 Practical Education Network Science manuals, which were used in equipping teachers to effectively implement the new Science curriculum.

Someone Else’s Child Foundation works to help underserved children and teens in need by sponsoring programs and initiatives to support and enhance their lives.

The outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has necessitated the move to online learning platforms and as a result, we have translated our in-person teacher-training program into digital modules to enable teachers to maximise our hands-on learning curriculum. Someone Else's Child Foundation has partnered with PEN to train a total of 100 basic school STEM teachers from the Greater Accra region via our online training which also incorporates key digital literacy skills and public health education on COVID-19.

Isaac is an angel investor to start-ups based in Africa and the Middle East, and co-founder of the Amahoro Coalition, an initiative convening private sector firms in Africa to accelerate the economic inclusion of refugees.

Isaac sponsored the training of sixteen teachers from the Kumasi Presby schools in the Ashanti region of Ghana. The training seeks to engage, encourage, and equip teachers over a three-month plan, taking them from ground level into innovative hands-on STEM teachers. They will be exposed to the art and science of using local materials to facilitate hands-on learning and will be assisted to create their own teaching and learning toolbox, to deliver well and master the craft of engaging, teaching and supervising their students remotely.