1. Status of Science, technology & innovation in Liberia Science, technology & innovation workshop in Mali May 11, 2010

2. Organizational Structure The Ministry of Education The National Commission on Higher Education 1 public university 5 private universities The Department of Instruction The Bureau of Vocation & Technology The Division of Science & technology relevant agencies of government and partners Agricultural research, bio- medical research

3. STI Status pre & post conflict Pre-conflict status (before 1990) - Structure of primary & secondary education changed from 8 – 4 system to 6 – 3 – 3 where science subjects are taught separately in the last 3 years - Science education emphasized at tertiary level - Vocation schools established, equipped and made functional - 5 centers were established where S & T teachers were trained - IT system was setup for data collection of schools

4. STI Status pre & post conflict Transitional period (1990 - 2003) - Conflict erupted, school infrastructures were destroyed - All systems put in place were derailed

5. STI Status pre & post conflict Post conflict (after 2003) - Baseline data collected by the M&E division of the Ministry of Education - Nos. of primary and secondary school teachers (trained and untrained) - Nos. of schools from secondary to tertiary level with equipped and functioning science labs - Nos. of qualified science professors at tertiary level

6. STI Status pre & post conflict Post conflict (after 2003) contd Results from baseline studies. - 29% of teachers in the secondary schools teach science - 24% of secondary science teachers (16,199) are trained - Less than 1% of senior high schools (396) have equipped and functioning science labs - 65% of the lecturers in the sciences at tertiary level are unqualified - All science laboratories at tertiary level are poorly equipped and lack reagents

7. STI Funding - Education allocation is 15% of national budget contrary to 25% of FTI bench mark thus less than 0.5% of GDP is committed to STI - Various agencies of government, grants to tertiary institutions for sponsorship and research

8. R & D performing institutions -Agriculture Research Institute -Tertiary Institutions -Bio-Medical Research -Ministry of Health

9. S & T Policies Currently, Liberia does not have policy on S&T however, discussions are underway in developing S&T policy - Baseline data are being collected in this direction

10. S & T Indicators Ideally, when the S&T policies are established, indicators will be developed for tracking

11. Current priority needs - Develop national STI policies - Rehabilitation of S&T infrastructures - capacity building in STI

12. Thank you for your attention