EDITORIALBuilding a dialoguesurroundingnew teacher policiesA consensus is emerging on an international level around the idea that theteacher issue is crucial to achieving Education for All (EFA) objectives. Thisis patently the case in African countries: the need for qualified teachersthere is clear. But the teacher issue is not just confined to matters ofteacher qualifications or numbers: it involves, amongst others,management, wage costs and professional development aspects.

The new Pôle de Dakar publication, Universal Primary Education in Africa:The Teacher Challenge, seeks just that: to gather existing information inorder to put the main aspects of the teacher issue into perspective (seereport, pages 4-6). Whilst the study argues for a global approach, it alsoemphasizes the need for review on a national level. It is, in particular, thisaspect that the UNESCO Teacher Training Initiative for Sub-Saharan Africa(TTISSA) is devoted to, with the project for a methodological guide forshedding light on the teacher issue.

The guide aims to assist countries who wish to put new teacher policies inplace. It is an ambitious project: the general principle is that thedevelopment of these new policies could benefit from a participatoryapproach, starting with a national review and followed by a social dialogue.Thus, by sharing the analyses and opening up debate, it could be possibleto overcome the obstacles which too often characterise the teacher issuein African countries and directly threaten recent progress made inenrolments.

This progress, let us remember, was made possible by policies whichfocused on controlling wage costs. The increase in teacher numbers hasoften been accompanied by a proliferation of statuses and conditions ofpay for teachers. These are the basis of social conflicts which nowundermine those policies drawn up as a matter of urgency. Lasting policiescannot ignore financial constraints. However, they cannot be the fruit of apurely technocratic approach either. The task which these countries havebefore them is challenging, but the stakes are high for many of them, as itwill directly affect their ability to achieve EFA objectives.

Jean-Pierre JaroussePôle de Dakar Coordinator

United NationsEducational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization

NEWS

Côte d'Ivoire _ well on the wayto rebuilding its education system 2

Launch of a new typeof partnership in Tanzania 2

PSGSE: The challenge of hybriddistance learning 3

REPORT

Universal primary educationin Africa: The teacher challenge 4

Under construction:A new tool for reviewing

the teacher issue 6

ON THE AGENDA 6

IN THE COUNTRIES 7

IN BRIEF

A renewed Pôle de Dakar team 8

New publications 8

The Pôle de Dakar Newsletter - SEPTEMBER 2009

Dakar OfficeRegional Bureau for Educationin Africa

°14

In April, Côte d'Ivoire completed areview of its education system, withsupport from UNESCO, through Pôlede Dakar and the World Bank. Thekey aspects of the Ivorian educationsystem were scrutinised in preparationfor a new education sector strategy,as were the bases of a fundingapplication to the Fast Track InitiativeCatalytic Fund. In the wake of thesocial and political crisis which hasshaken the country, priority is beinggiven to reconstruction.

“To rebuild our education system anddefine a new policy which is popularat national level, we need relevantand objective data on our educationsystem,” explained Francis Biney,review coordinator and educationspecialist within the Ivorian Ministryof National Education's strategicmanagement unit. “Basing oureducation policy on facts also put usin a position to mobilise additionalresources in support of nationalefforts.”

As a result, from November 2007 toApril 2009, a multisectoral teaminvolving the three ministriesresponsible for education in thecountry set to work on a review of theeducation system. The task consistedin analysing the situation from sevendifferent angles: demographic andmacroeconomic context, enrolmentpatterns, education costs, internalefficiency and quality, social andeconomic impacts, equity, andmanagement issues.

At the country's behest, Pôle deDakar assisted the sector review witheight technical support missions tothe national team. These took placeinitially during the data gathering andprocessing phase, at stages whenthe ministries' depleted informationsystems made the team's workparticularly difficult, and later duringthe analysis and report writing phase.“Here, the greatest challenge was totake the Ivorian crisis into account

when analysing the education systemand its developments over the pastfew years,” according to Jean LucYameogo, education policy analyst atPôle de Dakar.

To follow up on the review, Pôle deDakar also assisted in developing afinancial simulation model to estimatethe costs involved in various potentialeducation policy scenarios. Thisprocess led to discussions acrossdifferent sectors in May, in whichdonors took part. The outlines for anew national policy for the sectorwere then drawn, and an educationpolicy paper was drafted. Côted'Ivoire intends to submit aninternational funding application thisDecember.

Côte d'Ivoire _well on the way to rebuildingits education system

When it launched its ESMIS1

programme in 2007, designed to buildan information system for educationstatistics, Tanzania had no idea thatthis would be the basis of a new formof partnership to implement andmonitor its 2008-2017 educationdevelopment plan.

Indeed, from February 2009 toOctober 2010, the Dar es SalaamUNESCO cluster office, the UNESCOInstitute of Statistics (UIS), Pôle deDakar, Dar es Salaam University and a

thirty-person national team will worktogether as part of a programmewhich aims to strengthen nationalresources to deal with sector analysisin education. The order of the day is toreview the Tanzanian educationsector, while focusing on ongoingtraining for staff from the ministrieswhich are involved.

“What is unique about the Tanzaniangovernment's request is the idea ofcompleting a review of the educationsystem and carrying out policy

STRENGTHENING SECTORANALYSIS CAPACITIES

Launch of a new type ofpartnershipin Tanzania

The Pôle de Dakar Newsletter - SEPTEMBER 2009

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1 Education Sector Management InformationSystem.

Monday, June 22, 8:30 am. In theDakar francophone digital campusauditorium, at the AgenceUniversitaire de la Francophonie, 31candidates for PSGSE1 training, fromfive African countries, are preparingfor the week of classes which awaitsthem. After 10 months of distancelearning activities, punctuated by avirtual meeting and a first week ofwork in Dakar with the pedagogicalteam, this second meeting will alsoserve to assess the candidates'knowledge of the material they havebeen studying since September andthus to meet university trainingstandards.

According to Martine Boulanger, Pôlede Dakar training administrator, highPSGSE training retention rates (72%for the first year, 74% for the second

year) are down to the course materialbeing relevant to the students'careers, and a fast-paced workcalendar: regular coursework,discussion forums, online chatsessions, videoconferences. “However,”she adds, “the most successfulaspect of this distance learningprogramme remains the adoption of ahybrid system which alternatesbetween distance learning and in-class training.”

As Marie Mpinyurempore, a trainingcandidate and Deputy Director of the

Pre-School Education Departmentfor Burundi, notes: “Distance learningis sometimes difficult because youwould like someone to be able toanswer questions immediately. Thisweek's in-class gathering is a chanceto explain the problems we are upagainst and to have spontaneousdiscussions with tutors.”

The challenge of hybrid distance learningThe PSGSE distance training candidates meet in Dakar

simulations in view of the 2010sector review, while pursuing a'learning through doing' strategy”,added Marc Bernal, regional ISUadvisor, until recently working out ofthe Dar es Salaam UNESCO clusteroffice and responsible for supportingthe implementation of the ESMISprogramme.

To succeed in this task, two partnershave been appointed to make up thetechnical support team: Pôle deDakar and Dar es Salaam University's

Bureau of Educational Research andEvaluation (BERE). Thus, approximatelyevery two months, Pôle de Dakarsends a taskforce to Tanzania inorder to support the national team inthe technical work of collating andanalysing data. For its part, BERE willprovide national team members _

from the Ministry of Education, theMinistry of Finance, and the NationalBureau of Statistics as well as certaindecentralised offices _ with agrounding in sector analysis byrunning a variant of the PSGSE

training programme developed byPôle de Dakar. It also closelymonitors project progress.

“Clearly defining each partner's rolewas a delicate stage in the project,”Borel Foko, education policy analystat Pôle de Dakar, agreed. “But wefound a way of working whichallowed for continuous support andwhere all the partners complementedone another, while ensuring that thenational team remained the mainactor in the process.”

Because the present module, which is on

financial simulation techniques, requires different

technical skills, the Pôle de Dakar team provides

additional in-class training.

1 “Politiques sectorielles et gestion des systèmeséducatifs” (Sector Policies and EducationSystems Management), a distance learning post-graduate degree delivered jointly by UNESCO,through Pôle de Dakar, and the Dakar CheikhAnta Diop University, through the Education andTraining Sciences and Technologies Faculty.www.psgse.info

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The Pôle de Dakar Newsletter - SEPTEMBER 2009

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At the midway point for achieving theDakar goal of universal primaryeducation (UPE), teacher matters arethe key issue in sub-Saharan Africa.On the one hand, demand is still high,as an additional two and a half millionteachers will need to be recruited by2020 in order to achieve the UPEobjective. On the other, in light of thegrowing preoccupations in terms ofquality and equity in teaching, theanalyses reveal that two fundamentalaspects of the teacher challenge areovershadowed: sustaining motivationand improving management ofteaching personnel.

Universal primary education in Africa:The teacher challenge

The teacher challenge is therefore significant. It is not justa question of quantity: there are also financial, politicaland social facets. More than anything, new, moresustainable and integrated teacher policies are needed. Ina new publication, Pôle de Dakar has explored the variousaspects of the teacher issue and how they are related _

recruitment, training, deployment, management andprofessional development for teachers _ in an attempt toexpose real-life situations. This report presents, at aglance, certain elements which throw light on the issue.

The quantitative challenge:to double the number of teachers by 2020

To achieve UPE, the first condition is to have a sufficientnumber of qualified teachers. In Africa, this conditionconstitutes, as and of itself, a real challenge, because ofsustained population growth. Indeed, it is estimated that,in half the countries on the continent, the primary school-age population will increase by over 2% per year until20201.

Projections made by Pôle de Dakar for 41 Africancountries2 on the number of teachers required for UPEshow that the total needs to increase from 2.9 million in

1 The United Nations Population Division established a 1,7% average growth for the totality of African countries. 2 Based on data from 2004 to 2007.

© Pôle de Dakar / Thierry BONNET. . . .>

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2006 to some 4.6 million in 2020. Unsurprisingly, thecountries which are currently furthest from UPE are thosewhich will need to see the greatest increase in teachernumbers. Bearing in mind that to meet this target,teachers will also need to be recruited to replace thoseleaving the profession, the required number ofrecruitments is far higher than the difference between thecurrent number of teachers and the projected number forthe UPE year. Thus, in total, in all 41 countries, it isestimated that 2.4 million new teachers will need to berecruited _ not far from the current number of teachers.

At first, this objective might seem achievable, insofar as itcorresponds, for the vast majority of countries, tomaintaining recruitment rates recorded between 2000and 2005. However, on closer inspection, the challengewith regards to numbers is still sizeable as the massrecruitment of the past few years was only made possiblethrough policies to lower teachers' wages which are nowbeing questioned in several countries.

The motivational challenge: retaining teachers

The question of teacher retention and the underlyingquestion of their motivation also have become crucial toeducation policies in Africa. With increased pressure forhigh-quality education, teacher motivation has becomeessential to educational efficiency: it impacts directlyupon the quality of learning and on attendance. Besides,in certain countries, we observe that reducing the attritionrate3 by one percentage point would be sufficient toobtain the additional teacher numbers to achieve UPE.

Yet, with increases in class sizes and a massive influx ofchildren from disadvantaged backgrounds, motivation andcommitment carry more weight than ever. Retainingmotivated and dynamic teachers is no longer possiblewithout providing them with a clear vision of theirprospects for professional development. From thisperspective, teacher policies often remain fragile andmust undergo major changes as the idea of teacher'sprofessional development is no longer limited to increasesin wages, but involves ongoing opportunities for training,promotions and geographic mobility.

The careers of non-civil servant teachers, often working infar more precarious conditions than their civil-servantcounterparts, is also a particular case which requiresattention if their motivation is not to fade away.

The equity challenge: occupying rural zones

Because rural areas are still systematically at adisadvantage when it comes to providing education, theteacher challenge in Africa can also be seen in terms ofequity: access to and quality of education but alsoeducation funding. Indeed, in spite of concerted efforts,progress in enrolments has only had a very small effect onthese areas, where the number of pupils per teacherremains the highest and where the most communityteachers are found: teachers who are often poorly trainedand recruited and paid by communities.

If shortage of teachers is a general problem, it is worse inrural or remote areas. Over the last few years, countriessuch as Mali, Benin or Madagascar have taken action, bytaking charge of community teacher training and pay inparticular. Nevertheless, these inequalities still directlyraise the question of allocating teachers to schools _ amanagement problem which is rarely touched upon, but iscause for concern in a large number of African countries.The low appeal of rural areas means that the schoolslocated there have difficulties attracting and retainingstaff. In addition, it can be observed that appointments donot always correspond to needs: in 15 countries for whichdata is available, there is an imperfect correlation betweenteachers deployed over the country and school numbers.

Source: CSR-Benin (2008)

Pupil-teacher ratios (PTR) with and without community teachers:The case of Benin in 2005-2006

3 Phenomenon whereby teachers stop working because of retirement, illness,death, appointment to an administrative non-teacher post, or following a resig-nation from their teaching post.

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The Pôle de Dakar Newsletter - SEPTEMBER 2009

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Since November 2008, the UNESCO TTISSA1 has beenmanaging a project which will enable concrete action interms of teacher policies in African countries. The projectinvolves building a practical tool which countries can useto provide guidelines for the development, in each country,of “global” teacher policies _ that is to say policies whichtake recruitment, training, management, status, andprofessional development into account.

“Our aim,” explained Ramya Vivekanandan, assistantprogramme specialist at the UNESCO Section forTeacher Education explained, “is to provide a tool withthree components: a methodological guide to assistcountries in analysing the main facets of the teacherissue; a framework to guide the development of teacherpolicies involving all relevant parties; and referencedocumentation to support formulating, planning andimplementing these policies.”

Currently, the methodological guide is being put together.Designed for national teams, it takes the form of aframework for review which, over six chapters, outlinesthe main facets of the teacher issue. “The work methodput forward in the guide,” Mrs Vivekanandan continued,

Under construction: A new toolfor reviewing the teacher issue

“consists in analysing real-life situations, results whichhave already been obtained and possible margins ofimprovement with regards to the teacher issue. The ideais that this global, fact-based and impartial overview willmake a national discussion on new policies to beimplemented easier.” By providing different countries witha common structure for analysis, the guide will also makeit possible to compare national situations.

Pôle de Dakar contributed to writing the guide by workingspecifically on aspects linked to the context of educationsystems, teacher number estimates for primary andsecondary levels, initial and continued training of teachers,and deployment and management of teachers.

A first version of the guide was presented at a meetingorganised by the UNESCO regional office in Dakar inmid-March. The guide was subsequently tested duringseveral missions to Benin and Uganda throughout Mayand June. A validation seminar was held at the end ofJune at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, and the finalversion of the guide is expected for September 2009.

1 Teacher Training Initiative for Sub-Saharan Africa, put in place by the Section for Teacher Education of the UNESCO Division for Higher Education, theUNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Africa and the UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa.

ON THE AGENDA

SEPTEMBER

• Discussion workshop for educational policy trade-offs in Mali

• Launch of a sector review for Cape Verde

• Launch of a sector review for Comoros

OCTOBER

• Bamako +5 Conference on contractual teachers

• Meetings of the COMEDAF Bureau and steering committee (Conference of Ministers of Education of the African Union)

• Start of term for the 3rd batch of PSGSE training candidates

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From January to June 2009Pôle de Dakar's main activity is to directly support African countries in matters of sector analysis in education, financialframeworks and defining education policies. By assisting them in establishing credible plans for developing education systems,these activities help countries to prepare proposals for international funding, and in particular, to the Fast Track InitiativeCatalytic Fund. Here is an outline of the process for support followed by Pôle de Dakar as well as activities undertaken by theteam over the period of January to June 2009.

STEPSPROCESS PÔLE DE DAKAR ACTIVITIES

1. Receive a request fromnational authorities

2. Launch the sector reviewand assemble the national team

3. Collate and analyse data,write report

4. National restitution

Sector analysis

Support request

Financial frameworkand defining education

policies

Preparingnational strategyand programme

documents

Additionalfunding application

5. Construct financialsimulation models

6. Establish numbersfor different education policy scenarios

7. Education policy paper

8. Elaborate or updatethe education sector plan

9. Framework for medium-termexpenditure

10. Funding requestto the Fast Track Initiative

Catalytic Fund

3 requests received:• Cape Verde• Chad• Uganda

8 sector analyses are underway,including 4 which are new

20 support missions in 8 countries:• Côte d’Ivoire• Gabon• Guinea-Bissau• Malawi• Mali• Niger• Rwanda• Tanzania

3 reviews submitted:• Côte d’Ivoire• Malawi• Mali

Models constructed for 2 countries:• Côte d’Ivoire• Mali

Workshop participation in 2 countries:• Côte d’Ivoire• Guinea-Bissau

10 team members involved

2 countries with reviews which have obtained Fast Track Initiative funding:• Burkina Faso ($ US 102 million, December 2008)• CAR ($ US 37.8 million, December 2008)

The first part of 2009 saw a number of arrivals and departures within the Pôlede Dakar team. Those who have left include Kokou Améléwonou and NicolasReuge, who were with Pôle de Dakar from its beginnings, as well as Jean-MarcBernard and André Francis Ndem. There are also several names in the list ofnew faces. Beïfith Kouak Tiyab, Jean-Mathieu Laroche, Nathalie Nilsson andJean Luc Yameogo have joined the team as education policy analysts. KatiaVianou has been recruited as a communications advisor and Fati Zouré as aneducation statistics officer.

A renewedPôle de Dakar team

The Pôle de Dakar Newsletter - SEPTEMBER 2009

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The Pôle de Dakar team:(from left to right) Stéphanie Zadi, Jean-Pierre Jarousse, Blandine Ledoux, Fati Zouré, Katia Vianou,Beïfith Kouak Tiyab, Jean-Mathieu Laroche, Diane Coury, Guillaume Husson, Jean Luc Yameogo,Pape Mass Seck, Martine Boulanger, Borel Foko, Nathalie Nilsson, Djeckson Engonga (absent).

Universal Primary Education in Africa: The Teacher ChallengePôle de Dakar

The aim (and also the most unique feature) of Pôle de Dakar's most recent publication is topresent an overall view of the teacher issue in Africa based on a factual basis. The study isdivided into five chapters, each tackling a particular aspect of teacher matters, frompresenting the context and constraints specific to African countries, through to the subjectsof remuneration, status, quality, school management and professional development.

Le système éducatif béninois : Analyse sectorielle pour une politique éducative pluséquilibrée et plus efficace (French only)World Bank, Pôle de Dakar, Government of Benin

This education sector analysis report, published in April by the World Bank, is the fruit ofcollaborative work between a national team and an external support team made up of theWorld Bank and Pôle de Dakar. The report, a sort of photographic picture of the Benineseeducation system, highlights the system's recent successes as well as the main challengeswhich it will face in years to come.

New publicationsAvailable online: www.poledakar.org

UNESCO-BREDA12, avenue Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, 3rd floorB.P. 3311 - Dakar (Sénégal)Tel. : +221 33 849 59 79Fax : +221 33 821 35 25www.poledakar.org

The Pôle de Dakar is a platform of expertiseattached to the UNESCO Regional Bureaufor Education in Africa.

The articles contained in this publicationexpress Pôle de Dakar's ideas and opinions anddo not necessarily reflect those of UNESCO.

The Pôle de Dakar newsletter is publishedthree times a year, in English and French; it isonly published electronically.

Publication Director Jean-Pierre Jarousse,Editor in Chief Katia Vianou, Editorial TeamJean-Marc Bernard, Katia Vianou, StéphanieZadi, Copyreading Martine Boulanger,French > English translation JaderoadTranslations, Ramsgate, UK, Layout by Reg’,Régis L'Hostis, Dakar.

Write to the Pôle Mag team: katia.vianou@poledakar.org