Education: Investing in youth by supporting teacher training

Well-trained, supported and valued teachers are essential for ensuring quality education and the achievement of the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for education. But according to UNESCO, there is a shortfall of 69 million teachers worldwide, and many of those who work do not have the necessary qualifications and basic training.

Expertise France operates in more than 40 countries on education issues. It seeks to align its efforts with the needs already identified at the national and international level, by providing a relevant response. These projects reflect the agency’s commitment to inclusive, equitable and quality education, and the promotion of learning opportunities for all, in line with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) n° 4.

European technical cooperation mobilised for teacher training in Africa

The Regional Teachers’ Initiative for Africa is an example of these international cooperation efforts. It is led by the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Finland’s Jutta Urpilainen, and financed by the European Commission with an unprecedented investment (€100 million over a six-year period) to address the teacher shortage in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Initiative announced in January 2023, and whose launch was confirmed at the Global Gateway Forum in October 2023, will be made possible through close cooperation between UNESCO, the African Union, and the partnership formed by the agencies of three EU Member States (Expertise France for France, Enabel for Belgium and EDUFI for Finland) for the implementation of the three programme components.

Expertise France will ensure the coordination of this partnership and will be responsible for designing and operating the Regional Teachers’ Facility for Africa. It has underscored its commitment to work extensively and permanently for education alongside its European partners. The Facility will mobilise African and European expertise to meet requests for   technical assistance from African partners, and support their efforts to improve teaching conditions. This support for innovative, promising and tried-and-tested regional/multi-country initiatives promotes the professional development and training of teachers. It also supports African research to address the challenges of the teacher issue in Africa.

Furthermore, in East Africa, efforts have also come together to strengthen and value primary teachers in Burundi under the project “Twige Twese” (Let Us All Learn). This project, which started its activities this month, is co-financed by AFD and the EU. The region is faced with considerable pressure and difficulties in access to education. In addition, in Burundi’s education system, about 30% of children are out of school, there is a high dropout rate, and schools lack essential facilities and equipment, meaning that the management capacities of the system remain weak. The project will be deployed in five provinces in Burundi, with the aim of promoting quality basic education, taking into account issues related to gender, the inclusion of disability, the environment, and digital technology. Il also marks the beginning of major cooperation with the Francophone Initiative for Teacher Distance Training (IFADEM), and the first operation for Performance-based Financing (PBF) in Expertise France’s education portfolio. Encouraging results are expected from this major collaboration.

Haiti is committed to education, while Angola is strengthening higher education

Several projects already stand out for their results and impact among partners and beneficiaries. The project AVNI NOU (Our Future) started its operations in Haiti in 2022 and has since been working on improving the quality of education in the country. The project aims to structure the professional and linguistic skills of teachers, while seeking to promote the learning of active teaching methods to encourage greater participation by students. Despite the country’s socio-political situation since the activities started, the results achieved reflect the strong public/private synergy, in particular between the Ministry of Education and training organisations:

• 56 school heads trained

• 40 inspectors trained

• 3 training modules certified

• 212 pedagogical worksheets produced and certified

• 15 capacity building workshops/seminars for the staff of training operators (monitoring-evaluation, administration and finance) 

• 102 digital tablets distributed

The structuring project UNI.AO, which was launched in 2019, also reaches completion this year. This initiative aims to support higher education in Angola. The main objective of this project, which is financed by the EU, is to strengthen the higher education sector, especially the capacities of universities, by creating professional specialisation programmes (Master’s, Doctorates and specialised courses) in priority sectors for the economic diversification of the country.

The commitment of the Angolan Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation and the technical assistance from Expertise France have helped structure the project around three areas: strengthening the governance of the sector, the specialisation of universities, and an enhanced dialogue between academia and the private sector, in particular companies. Furthermore, there are specific activities to increase access for women to higher education and better integrate the academic world into the local economic fabric.

The project has achieved numerous results since it started in 2019. They concern both activities to strengthen the higher education sector and activities targeting universities, and more specifically teachers and students. These results include:

• The definition of a post-graduation strategy: an initial assessment was conducted, as well as an analysis to identify the priority economic sectors, in order to define the courses to be developed

• The creation of an information system integrated into the sector: the Higher Education Services and Information System (SISIES)

• Training for 200 managers from public and private higher education institutions, in the context of the “Specialisation in higher education management” course

• The creation and enhancement of 29 new Master’s, Doctorate and specialisation courses

• The introduction of a B-learning support system (blended learning combining face-to-face and distance courses)

The project will end this year of activities with a new training cycle and two dialogue forums on the theme “Science and Societies”.