The Liberian Primary Education Program (PEP) is aninstructional 
system adopted by the Ministry ofEducation as the national program for 
primary education in Liberia.  PEP, formerly called the Improved 
Efficiency of Learning (IEL) Project, wasdesigned to overcome a shortage 
of adequately trained primary school teachers, textbooks, and other 
educational materials.
	The program includes 510 instructional modules (or lessons). Each 
module is comprised of readingbooklets, practice booklets, and review 
booklet tests to determine how well students have masteredthe material of 
each module, block and semester. Aprogram to train teachers in the 
methodology of the system comprises an additional component.
	In 1989, 60 in-service PEP pilot radio programs were produced to 
follow-up on the initial training by reinforcing elements of the 
programmed instruction modules for selected groups of PEP teachers 
(second-grade reading and fifth-grade science teachers) and principals.  
The broadcasts began on 6/5/89 and ran during that semester and the 
following one.
	In 1989, the Academy for Educational Development (AED) contracted 
with Applied Communication Technology (ACT) to conduct an evaluation of 
the pilot radio programs.  The purpose of the evaluation was to determine 
the programs' impact on the administrative performance of school 
principals and the teaching performance of second and fifth grade PEP 
teachers.  To measure changes in job performance, self-reported 
information was collected from the target groups using a  
pre-test/post-test design.  Because it was not known prior to the 
collection of the data whether it would be possible to arrive at 
quasi-equivalent intervention and control groups, as many of the 360 PEP 
schools as possible were included in the sample.
	The pilot radio programs were evaluated by testing teachers and 
principals both before and after the programs were broadcast, to see if 
there was any detectable difference in what they did as PEP teachers 
after the broadcasts.  It was found that the radio programs alone (after 
removing the impact of in-service supervision visits) did indeed help to 
improve about one-third of the skills that were measured.  The specific 
instances in which this occurred were helping principals to handle 
teacher shortages and to prepare for and monitor faculty meetings; 
helping second-grade teachers to read poetry and identify vowel sounds 
and word sounds; and helping fifth-grade teachers to prepare for class by 
taking module booklets home and to administer tests.
	The combination of supervision and radio improved teachers' and 
principals' performance on almost every item except those on which the 
initial score was so high to begin with that there was little room for 
improvement.  Skills which improved as the result of a combination of 
radio and supervisory visits were, for principals, keeping attendance 
records, taking responsibility for module and test booklets, and holding 
faculty meetings more frequently; for second grade teachers, going to the 
principal or Ministry for more booklets, taking modules home to prepare 
for class, and providing remedial help to students; for fifth-grade 
teachers, providing remedial help to students, using PEP methodology to 
promote and monitor student progress, and forming peer groups.  In 
several of these instances, groups which lagged behind on the pre-test 
were brought up to the level of the other groups on the post-test.  In 
the case of helping second-grade teachers pronounce vowel sounds, results 
indicate that supervisory visits made an impact, but that the radio 
programs did not.
	The results of the evaluation indicate that radio and supervision 
play an important role in improving the performance of those teachers and 
principals whose skills are not up to the standard of the group as a 
whole.  Several cases were observed in which the score of a group which 
was notably lower on the pre-test rose to the level of the other groups 
on the post-test:  principals keeping attendance and taking 
responsibility for booklets, and second-grade teachers turning to 
principals and the Ministry for additional booklets.
	Almost all of the teachers and principals (99% or more) reported 
that they liked the radio programs, that the programs were helpful, and 
that there should be more programs next semester. On the basis of these 
positive (though possibly inflated) assessments, and the improvements in 
performance that have been recorded in this report, the PEP Program 
should look favorably on the continuance of radio broadcasting to PEP 
schools.