Launched in 2016 by the Government of Liberia as the Partnership Schools for Liberia and rebranded in 2018, LEAP is a public-private partnership (PPP) that delivers 100% tuition-free primary education throughout Liberia from early childhood education through Grade 9. The program started as a three-year pilot to test if a PPP model could accelerate improvements in Liberia’s primary public education system after it had been decimated by 14 years of civil war and the Ebola health pandemic. In 2021, LEAP served more than 70,000 students at 323 schools in 14 of Liberia’s 15 counties.

Built upon an education innovation laboratory model, LEAP is designed to improve school management and accountability, enhance teachers’ and school administrators’ abilities to deliver quality learning outcomes, and optimize delivery models that the Ministry of Education can apply throughout all of Liberia’s public schools.

UMOVEMENT has been part of LEAP since its inception, and today is one of four educational operators (and the sole Liberian one) participating in the program. We have grown from operating five LEAP schools with 977 students, to 40 schools serving 10,000 students; a five-fold increase in schools and pupils. Starting with 52 staff at LEAP’s outset, UMOVEMENT currently has 320 teachers and administrators working at our schools in three Liberian counties, and we have expanded the number of female staff members 960% since 2016 from five to 105.