Transcripts For CSPAN2 Charter Schools In The Developing Cou

[inaudible conversations] thank you for coming today. Im an Education Research fellow here at the American Enterprise institute. Id like to thank everyone who is joining us here today. Also those who are joining online stream and for our friends watching on cspan. Our event today, Charter Schools in the developing of the world with a keynote from Liberia Education minister. George k. Warner. We have a simple program. After a few introductory remarks, we are going to have a brief video. We are going to give you a couple of those. The root of todays conversations about schools in liberia. Then well turn it over to minister warner and hes going to get his keynote address. Following that, a fantastic panel today with scott andrew from democracy builders, any black firm results from development and Alessandro Favero from the International Finance corporation. I will introduce them in detail when the panel joins me appear. We will have about 45 minutes of q a time with opportunities for the audience to join as well. For those following on social media, we have the hashtag or event. Hashtag developing world charters. The questions i will be checking on during the q a. The event again is being live streamed and the full video will be posted online after we conclude todays event. Of course we are here today to hear from minister warner about liberias bold approach for school reform. But first, i want to give a little bit of context for those who dont dirty habit. It. Liberia is a west african nation founded by the United States, primarily in the 1800s. Over the past decade, liberia has seen the 1980s saw multiple coup detats in sort of a cycle of violence and unrest that culminated in 1989 in the first of two civil wars that lasted for 14 years with hundreds of thousands of casualties and more than 1. 3 liberians displaced. The country is stabilized in 2003 to some degree and further in 2006 with the election of president alan johnson for a former World Bank Economist and eventual Nobel Peace Prize recipient. Under president s to leave, liberia continue to stabilize democrat institutions with difficult works in stability. In 2014, the Ebola Outbreak killing thousands of liberians and of course a difficult emergency in destabilizing event for the country, which has come out to build Economic Growth and institutions with poverty and strengthening an Education System that were shattered. For the better part of a year. On many educational measures, liberia lags behind other african countries with low levels of Primary School completion low literacy. An illustrative statistic in 2013, nearly 25,000 student took the university of liberia Entrance Exam and no one passed. This led the president to call the Education System generally and she charged Education Minister George Warner to stay with us with a new course for Liberia Education. Mr. Warner has taken up the challenge and in 2016 he announced a bold plan to Partnership Schools for liberia programs in which School Operators around 93 Primary Schools partially funded by the government. The program is most zoo has drawn detractors. The consequences of Public School privatization and supporters cite the need for innovative change in a Failing School system. In 201617 school year, 28,000 attended 93 psl schools. Partnership schools for liberia schools run by international providers. These educational reforms come at a time of Major Political change. In october, liberia will elect a new legislature and president in the first democratic transfer of power from 1944. This will be a test of liberias Young Democratic institutions and with the new administration on the horizon and reforms underway, liberia and its School Reforms face both great change in great opportunity. A picture is as good as a thousand words. Before you bring up mr. Warner to the podium, we have the context of the psl reforms. All right. I hope that short video gives you some view on liberia schools. I would like to invite Education Minister George Warner to go with his keynote previously thought at the High School Policy levels produced by a school general in 2015. He currently cochairs liberias Health Workforce Development Tax worth. Join me in welcoming the minister. [laughter] thank you for the kind introduction and thank you to aei for welcoming us here. I am here today to discuss liberias experience with Publicprivate Partnerships in education. First, let me say that im honored to be here on behalf of the liberian government and our president. As most of you know, president s are they became the first democratically elected female president in africa in 2005. That election was also another first for liberia. It was the first president ial election since the rule in a devastating conflicts that have crippled our country and took 200,000 lines. President sir leaf will be leaving office having served two terms. All respecting constitutional term limit marked another important milestone that should not be overlooked. The first transfer of power in my country since 1944 and will consolidate our postwar democracy. After the president ial campaign got a taste in just a few months time, i am struck by just how far we have come. When you pick up the newspaper and turn on the radio in liberia, you will see and hear evidence the spirits of political debate. The engage civil society. This is an achievement we should not take for granted. So i must say occasionally i remind myself that when i am one of the last in the line of fire of criticism, beyond our democratic achievement over the past decade, liberia has emerged as a postconflict success story. Innovations in Publicprivate Partnership has been introduced and created new pop forms of collaboration in health care, human and institutional capacity, full answer p. , infrastructure and education. We owe a debt of gratitude to the United States for serving along the journey. Through both democratic and republican administrations, through war and the return of peace and most recently to the fight against ebola, the United States has been an essential partner. I want to thank the American People for your report. I want to thank all who contributed in my country. I know i speak on behalf of not only the liberian government, but the liberian people when i say we look forward to continuing the Partnership Long into the future. When you look at the democratic trends not just in liberia, but across the continent of africa, it becomes clear why the National Partnership and collaboration are more important than ever before. Today there are 420 million africans between the ages of 15 and 35. That number is expected to nearly double to over 830 million by 2015. This can either be a Demographic Dividend with the potential to transform or it can be a ticking timebomb, which depends on when being, education. 10 to 12 million African Youth currently entered the workforce every year, many without the need to succeed in finding meaningful employment. Our educational systems are failing to prepare children for the jobs of yesterday, let alone the jobs of tomorrow. Too many of our young people have a hopeless future at home and are fleeing the continent and risking to find opportunities abroad. At the same time, countries across the continent that increased demand not only on our educational system, but also health care and social services. The budget has stretched to the breaking point. In this context, African Leaders need to think outside the box and find innovative solutions. In liberia, this is what we have done. We are educating the first generation of liberian children who have not known war or conflict. They are too young to have experienced the days when children, rather than going to school are recruited and tore our country apart. The dreams and aspirations that the new generation in our hand. It is our responsibility to ensure that they have opportunity to succeed. That responsibility was front and center in my mind when i was appointed Education Minister by president sirleaf in june of 2015 and is still what drives me every day. When i spoke to him at the ministry of education, some of the challenges i would face. I knew that our educational system was failing to educate the 35 of our young women and 21 of our young men could not read a single sentence. I knew about the gender gap in the 39 of women across liberia are in Primary Schools in a knew about the inequality in Education Access in our rural areas with only 26 of women and 68 of men. I have read all the studies they knew all the facts and is a former teacher myself, when i began traveling across the country, visiting schools, speaking to teachers, parents and children, it became clearer that reform was urgently needed. Repealing the status quo was not simple. We absolutely could not risk of this or any other future generation of late. Children. So we embrace the opportunity to implement reform and truly transform our Education System. We launched a threeyear plan that includes increasing professionalization that teacher and principals across the country and cannot team regressed monetary evaluations to ensure we stay on track to reach our goals. We have taken an aggressive project and removed those workers from the teachers payroll. Nearly 2000 goes to workers, which has led to 2. 5 million in savings that could be reinvested in education. We also launched an innovative Public Private partnership testing new mottos for repealing siberia schools. That program is what i am here to discuss today. At that mission earlier, dsl has an important distinction from Charter Schools that you have here in the United States. All of the schools in the programs remain within the Public School system and employ teachers on the government payroll. They also do not not based on academic performance. Through the psl program, we partner with eight education providers, some local, some international, some nonprofit, some for profit. Each with a different model, but all with previous experience in delivering quality education and improving literacy outcomes. Those providers within the program are Rich International academies, which i am sure we will look at more during the discussion. The effort in uganda and the learning outcomes with liberia to partner with the government of liberia. More cannot profit which is all brandname on the capital of liberia, providing both education and Services Like health care, Psychosocial Support and a program. Another nonprofit provider, which also cooperates in sierra leone and nigeria and has to focus not only on provided education, but also training and supporting communities that manage the account. It also operates a network in sierra leone and has a fulltime approach to education. An ngo found in bangladesh that have experience working across africa. It runs a network and last but not least, in liberia they are in seminaries both local and providers. We just concluded it operated at 93 schools in third and counties across liberia, providing free quality education to around this encouraging result. This data creates enrollment on teacher behavior, including reviews and greater time teaching. About 90 on average across all psl schools and as high as 98 . Teachers are also 9 less likely to be outside the classroom of psl schools. These the same mike small things should be taken for granted, but no achievement in the context such as liberia. Today, the program has also delivered a muchneeded resources and infrastructure, a teacher for every classroom and training opportunities. They have also generated a new appreciation for a longer school day all without charging any fees. Just this week, for up to a providers in the psl program relieves the report, during the first year of the program in the key successes in learning outcomes. It is deeply encouraging to see not only their commitment to measurement and evaluation, but also areas including liberty. Teacher training, communities and teachers learning. Regular independent measurement and evaluation is in a program from an earlier stage, where currently an independent assessment being carried out by the center for Global Development in partnership with innovation. Why we await those results, we will move into the modest increase into psl schools for 93 to 200, about 7 of liberias Public Schools. In the coming year, we will advertise such as the southeast of liberia, which has Economic Conditions that make it a cute. Ps ill is an innovation that has the potential to accelerate the provision of quality education and ultimately make it accessible in a way that has never been before. But this program is strictly evidencebased. So it will not move forward within a last until we have received the completed independent assessment and can adjust the impact on the students and the school system. Once we assess with the future will look like, what remains clear is both action is needed if we are going to properly educate for the future. Starting by the Brookings Institution before i came here estimate that there is a 100 year gap between the developing world in the developed world when it comes to academic achievement 100 years. If we are going to leapfrog, innovation isnt an option, its a necessity. If the results are as compelling as we think they will be, psl will serve as a model of highquality low cost education they can repeal not only in liberia or even in africa, but other countries around the world that are recovering from conflict and crisis. We look forward to opportunities like today, to share our story with colleagues and partners across the globe. I look forward to hearing your questions about erics. And i lively and productive discussion. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] thank you, minister warner. Let me also thank the panels that you see before you who have made time to join us today for this conversation. Next to minister warner is alejandro alvey aero, Senior Education specialist on the House Administration team at the International Finance corporation, which is the private sector arm of the world bank. There he valued vestments in private education companies. Before joining ifc, ill hunger was a Senior Education specialist at the world bank were to have governments in higher education, science, technology and innovation in the latin american and caribbean region before joining the world bank in 2006, he was Vice President with deutsche bank, working in east asia. Thanks for coming, alejandra. Amy black, weve learned much about her. The executive Vice President Global Education is results for development previously ms. Black served as the Vice President a rogue strategy and development for teachers for all, which is a Global Network of more than 40 National Partner organizations that work to improve Educational Opportunities for marginalized youth. Before helping establish teach for all, amy was the executive or at the washington d. C. Region for teach for america. Before that, she oversell International Communications for the president s emergency plan for aids relief and then two years as a president ial management fellows rotating through the state Department Offices including a sixmonth stint. Thank you, amy for joining us. Last but not least, andrew is, if he you know staff, datasets and a blue hat down there at the end. If you dont know him, seth is for democracy builders and usually wears a yellow hat. He is launching more than 300 charter like schools in liberia, kenya, uganda, nigeria and india. Mr. Andrews served as the Senior Advisor in the executive office of the president and lead the education and Civic Technology portfolios and he also served as Senior Adviser to former u. S. Secretary of e