Pupils and teachers review and approve new teachers’ guide for Nature Clubs in the Gola landscape, Liberia and Sierra Leone 

On 11 April 2023, Gola PAPFor partners met at the Corina Hotel, Monrovia, Liberia, for the final review and validation of the Teachers’ Guide for Nature Clubs in the Gola Landscape – Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The Teachers’ Guide for Nature Clubs, a major part of the School Environmental Education Programme supported by PAPFor, is designed to provide schoolteachers with ideas and activities that they can use to design interesting environmental education lessons. It is intended to increase the teacher’s knowledge and understanding and enable him or her to handle the various topics adequately. Using the guide, a teacher can plan sessions that are suitable for the knowledge level of schoolchildren and Nature Club members. The Guide is arranged in such a way to highlight practical activities that Nature Club members can take part in during sessions taking place at least once a month for 11 months of the year.

The Teachers’ Guide has been arranged in sections comprising Features of Nature Clubs, Activities of Club members, Running Nature Clubs, and an annual worksheet of activities for club members.

The Guide also contains a description of the annual activity chart and illustrations and charts to inform students about the role and value of the environment and nature-related topics.

The validation workshop brought together schoolchildren from private and government schools in Monrovia, teachers, and staff of the Curriculum Department and School management of the Ministry of Education in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Environmental Education Officers from PAPFor partners the Society for Conservation of Nature in Liberia (SCNL), Conservation Society of Sierra Leone (CSSL) and the Gola Rainforest Company (LG) also took part.

The validation of the Teachers’ Guide provides a platform for it to be adapted for the purposes of formal and informal education for schoolchildren in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The PAPFor partners will continue to support the use of the guide to develop environmental education activities within the landscape and will also use it as a medium for Nature Clubs to connect with similar environmental education platforms for children in other parts of Africa.