EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION POLICY ACADEMY: LIBERIA The Early Childhood Education Policy Academy1 is a multi-year effort by the World Bank designed to help countries identify needs and generate options to improve early childhood education (ECE) at the country level. It offers a unique opportunity for country teams to strengthen policymaker capacity, problem-solve within a global network of peers, and engage in South-to-South learning along some of the world’s leading early childhood practitioners and academic experts. The program’s first cohort supported 12 countries2 from April 2021 to November 2022. This case study showcases how the program specifically supported the Liberia country team. Liberia has placed a greater emphasis on the role of early childhood development (ECD) in recent years. CONTEXT The country has introduced many elements of a strong ECE framework, including the creation of a national inter-sectorial ECD policy, the development of Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS), teacher planning tools, and a national ECE curriculum consistent with the school readiness objectives and integrated into the certificate teacher training program for pre-service and in-service teachers. Moving forward, the country aims to improve school readiness, increase the attractiveness of the teaching profession as well as the number of qualified Early Childhood Education (ECE) teachers, and further strengthen coordinated intersectoral planning. The ways in which the program has supported these goals are detailed below. ECE SNAPSHOT Access Enabling environment Learning standards/curriculum GER: 110.1 NER: 55.6 (EMIS, 2022) Coordination ECD plan or body strategy Measurement Quality system assurance GOAL 1 • Contribution: The program has provided Technical Assistance (TA) to the PROGRAM CONTRIBUTION country team for the design of a school readiness assessment strategy for IMPROVE ECE, aligned with the Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS). SCHOOL • Next steps: As a result of the TA, the Ministry of Education is moving READINESS forward with an early childhood education (ECE) learning assessment system and has selected and contextualized the International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) measurement tool. GOAL 2 • Contribution: The program module on Attracting, Training and Retaining Teachers has supported the country team in exploring ways to improving STRENGTHEN the attractiveness of the teaching workforce. THE ECE • Next steps: Building consensus around actions to address workforce WORKFORCE challenges in a new Education Sector Plan for Liberia. The government is working on a harmonized salary structure to encourage uniformity and is also considering incentivizing teachers to work in remote rural locations. A Teaching Workforce Management Strategy (TWMS) is currently under development. GOAL 3 • Contribution: Through the “Strengthening Early Learning Systems” course, the country team identified the main challenges and possible strategies to BUILD institutionalize implementation plans for stakeholder collaboration. EFFECTIVE • Next steps: In early 2023, an intersectoral ECD committee has been re- COORDINATION established with focal points across ministries to hold regular structured meetings to strengthen coordination and regulatory efforts. 1 The Early Childhood Education Policy Academy is managed by the World Bank’s Early Learning Partnership (ELP), a multi-donor trust fund that provides resources and technical assistance to support early childhood development and early learning around the world. 2 Participating countries included: Cambodia, Central African Republic, El Salvador, Liberia, Morocco, North Macedonia, Paraguay, Senegal, South Africa, Türkiye, West Bank and Gaza, and Uganda.