Our School

The Gbarnga Lutheran Training Center (GLTC) is our Christian school located on a 15-acre campus within the Deanville Community. This village of approximately 75 families is outside the city of Gbarnga in Bong County about 120 miles northeast of the capital city Monrovia. Our campus currently consists of a school building, kitchen, guesthouse, warehouse, two guard houses, a solar-powered water system providing clean chlorinated drinking water, as well as a hand pump well for community use.

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The school building has three classrooms, a library, the principal and administrative staff office, boys’ and girls’ bathrooms with modern toilets and running water. Our long-term goal at Gbarnga Mission is to construct and staff a Christian school from pre-K through high school augmented by vocational education and adult literacy classes while developing small businesses on the campus to build towards financial self-sufficiency and sustainability. In November 2016 we completed Phase I of our campus construction and GLTC opened with our first class of preschoolers (better known in Liberia as “ABC” students) along with a kindergarten class. 

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Recognizing that many older students in Liberian government schools are not sufficiently literate due to lax early education and poor teaching methods, we wanted to ensure a solid foundation for all attending GLTC. Therefore, our plan has been to start with preschool and add a grade each year – building strong literacy skills and allowing the school campus to grow in parallel with our initial student population. We now offer ABC, K1, K2, 1st Grade, and 2nd Grade classes. God has blessed us with steady enrollment and qualified staff which enables us to add 3rd grade in the 2020-2021 academic year.

 

Though substantial financial support comes from US donors, the entire school is staffed and managed by Liberians in coordination with a Parent Teacher Association (PTA) from community members and in consultation with the Ministry of Education. In addition to a guesthouse for rental income, we recently started a poultry farm to sell eggs and ultimately provide income and better nutrition for the school children. This farm will also serve as the basis for a future vocational education class in poultry farming and agriculture.