At Damiefa School in Liberia, art education is not treated as a nice extra. It is part of the regular curriculum and part of our wider belief that children deserve a richer education than is typical in many schools around us.
That matters because art education is still far from common in Liberia. In many schools, the focus is understandably on the basics: reading, writing, maths and exam preparation. Those foundations are important. But at Damiefa School, we also want children to learn how to observe, interpret, create and express ideas. We believe these are not luxuries. They are part of the skills children will need for the future.
What makes this especially meaningful is that the work is being led by our own teachers.
Teachers are at the centre
At Damiefa School, art education is delivered through regular classroom teaching. International volunteers do not come in to “do art” with the children. Instead, they help train and equip our teachers, who then bring those ideas into their own lessons and classrooms.
We believe that if something is to last, it has to become part of how the school itself works.
This isn’t always easy. Art education is unfamiliar territory for many of our teachers and comes with a steep learning curve for them. They are being asked to teach in ways that are often very different from how they themselves were taught. And using materials that they never had access to as children.
But they are also embracing the challenge. Slowly but surely, they are discovering that art can be a powerful tool for helping children understand, remember and engage.
Learning to teach differently
Part of the teacher training focuses on helping staff think beyond the idea of art as simply drawing or colouring. The aim is to help teachers use creative methods to deepen learning across subjects.
For example, our science teacher recently taught students the difference between harmful and helpful bacteria. Rather than only teaching the topic from the board, they carried out a simple lab experiment from one of the books in the Mineke Foundation library. He and the students made pineapple “wine” to show how helpful bacteria can be used in practice.
It is a small example, but it shows something important. The science lesson became more than a definition to memorise. It became something students could see, discuss and connect to real life.
In our volunteer-led teacher training, we encourage staff to read a specific book and then interpret or explain the story through art. It’s fun for our teachers, who’ve never done this before, but it also trains them in an approach that we’re building into our teaching. In class, children might take turns reading a book aloud and then respond to it through drawing or another creative activity. In that way, art helps to strengthens reading, comprehension and interpretation.
Why this matters for future skills
We don’t expect every child to become an artist. But we do believe that creative education helps build the kinds of skills children will need later in life.
When children learn through art, they learn how to interpret a story, explain an idea, solve a problem, observe details and try different ways of expressing what they understand. They also build confidence: confidence to speak, to create, to experiment and to think for themselves.
These are skills that are also important outside the classroom. In future jobs and livelihoods, children will need to communicate clearly, adapt, work with ideas, connect what they learn across subjects and respond creatively when things do not go according to plan. In that sense, our art education helps prepare them for the future world of work.
Building something unusual, slowly and for the long term
At Damiefa School, we are trying to build something that lasts. Not a one-off activity, not a visiting workshop, but a stronger educational model in which teachers grow, classrooms become more engaging, and children are prepared not only to pass exams, but to think, create and adapt.
We are under no illusion that this work moves fast. Because art education is still relatively unknown, both teachers and students are learning as they go. Progress can be slow. But it is happening.
That is exactly why we believe in it.