Liberia is a West African nation of 2.7 million persons occupying 42,989 square miles an area approximately equal in size to the State of Tennessee in the United States (Paxton, 1989, p. 802). The country's per capita gross national product of US$470 places it near to the bottom of the lower middle income classification (The World Bank, 1989, p. 222).
By the year 2000, Liberia's population is projected to reach four million. With unemployment high in the early 1990s, the growing population represents a major threat to the country's fragile economy. While education is looked to as an answer to this problem, the literacy rate is only 35 percent, and school attendance rates are relatively low 20 percent at the secondary level, and 50 percent at the primary level (The World Bank, 1989, p. 262). A national uniform system of primary education was introduced in Liberia in 1986 (Florida State University, et al., 1986, p. 6). Full implementation of the system was planned for March 1991 the end of the fifth year of program implementation (Florida State University, et al., 1986, p. 6).
Education is viewed in most parts of the world as a means through which national goals may be met. Developing countries in particular tend to regard education as an instrument through which economic and modernization goals may be pursued effectively. In such situations, national goals often tend to define the nature, purposes, and structure of the educational system. In turn, these characteristics of the educational system may exert a direct effect on teacher education programs.Teacher education programs in Liberia were characterized in the late 1980s as beset by fragmentation and disarticulation (Florida State University, et al., 1988, p. 6.1 6.2). Special teacher training programs have been initiated to support a variety of donor assisted educational development efforts, while the Ministry of Education supports other teacher training programs th...