African Ministers of Education hold their Session in AFTRA, issue a Communique.

July 18, 2023

African Ministers of Education hold their Session in AFTRA, issue a Communique.

Ministers of Education in Africa held their annual AFTRA Ministerial Session at the AFTRA 10th Conference in Windhoek, Namibia on May 10, 2023. The Ministerial Session was chaired by the Deputy Minister, Hon Faustina N. Caley, MP. Hon. John Ntim Fordjour, MP, Deputy Minister of Education, Ghana was the Rapporteur while Mr. Hambali Masheleni, Acting Director of the Department of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, African Union Commission served as Co-Rapporteur. The various heads and experts of the international organisations presented policy briefs on their areas of operation. The following is a list of the briefs: Dr Peter Wallet, International Task Force on Teachers: Supporting teachers through policy development: Lessons from sub-Saharan Africa – The need to develop teacher policies comprehensively in accordance with the UNESCO Teacher Policy Guide. Dr Casely Stephens Olabode, African Union Commission: African Union Theme of the Year 2024: “Building resilient Education systems for increased access to inclusive, lifelong, quality, and relevant learning in Africa.” Dr Quentin Wodon, Director, UNESCO IICBA: Strengthening Data Generation and Analysis for Resilient, Inclusive, and Better Performing Education Systems; Global Partnership for Education Knowledge Innovation Exchange (GPE KIX); and IICBA Executive Education and Policy Academy. Dr Dennis Sinyolo, Director, Education International Africa Region: Strengthening the Regulation and Professionalisation of Teaching in Africa. Professor Steve Nwokeocha, Executive Director (Academics), AFTRA: The Milestones in the Development of AFTRA, Challenges and Recommendations. All the Ministers addressed the Conference to highlight the countries’ activities related to issues raised in the policy brief: Namibia, Ghana, Zambia, Angola, Nigeria, and South Africa strongly spoke in support of the need to comprehensively development and implement teacher policies in line with the UNESCO Teacher Guide. Many of them narrated their efforts to develop and implement the policies. There was a general consensus that the development and implementation of teaching standards were indispensable and these must be aligned with the Education International/UNECSCO and African Union framework of teaching standards. They, further, elaborated the benefits of a regulated profession and the need to speed up the enactment of law to legalise teaching and establish a professional regulatory authority for the profession. Data generation and utilisation were also upheld by the Ministers as being critical for evidence-based governance in education, and charged members to accord priority to the area. For these and other ideas generated by the Ministers and consensus they reached, they released a Ministerial Communique that was signed by all the participating Ministers. Specifically, the Ministers declared their commitment to the following actions: Specifically, we commit to: 1. Development of Comprehensive Teacher Policies: A number of countries do not have comprehensive national teacher policy. Existing policies are fragmented. Therefore, there is a need to use the UNESCO Nine Dimensions in a cross-cutting way to develop National Teacher Policy.Development of the integrated and well aligned teacher policy should be able to respond to local teacher issues of a country. 2. Adoption of 2024 as the year of Teacher Professional Development: African Union adoption of Education as the theme for the year 2024 with the focus on “Educate an African fit for the 21st century: Building resilient Education systems for increased access to inclusive, lifelong, quality, and relevant learning in Africa.” Ensuring teacher quality will be a positive response to theAfrican Union’s Continental Education Transformation Strategy of improving learning outcomes. Teacher quality can be improved by strengthening regulation and professionalisation of teaching in Africa, implementing theAfrican Union Commission’s developed Continental Teacher Qualification Framework, Continental Framework of Standards and Competencies for the Teaching Professions, and Guidelines for the Regulation of Teaching. 3. Strengthening Data Generation and Analysis for Resilient, Inclusive, and Better Performing Education Systems: Appropriate data generation can help monitor Africa’s progress towards eradicating the Issue of learning poverty where 9 out of 10 children are unable to read and monitor teacher job satisfaction and motivation. Teachers are often the solution to many education issues; therefore, well motivated and qualified teachers are critical. For resilient, inclusive, and better performing teachers, there is the need to leverageinterventions, such as; Mental health and psychosocial support National school eye health programmes Increased number of female teachers and heads of schools 4. Adoption of Strategies Towards Teacher Professionalisation in Africa: The strategies for the professionalisation of teaching must cover: The development and full implementation of professional teaching standards; The establishment or strengthening of Teaching Regulatory Authority; The generation and usage of evidence and data to support education and teacher policy development and reforms; The implementation of quality and relevant initial teacher education, systematic induction, and free professional development programmes for teachers; The transformation of the teaching profession to become an attractive and first choice job by ensuring that teachers have decent salaries and working conditions The strengthening of social and policy dialogue The Investment in teacher education and teachers
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