Objectives
The Regional Teachers Initiative for Africa aims to support African countries to improve the education and training of teachers and to make sure that their schools have enough qualified teachers. This will be achieved through policy support in areas of teacher governance and teacher professional development and will contribute to delivering quality education for all.
The initiative will contribute to regional and national objectives by supporting and complementing national education and teacher reforms, offering opportunities for countries to work together, supporting partnerships and peer learning for teachers in the region, and also to work with Europe.
Many countries in Africa, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, face persistent challenges in making teaching an attractive and intellectually fulfilling career, as well as identifying effective teaching practices and helping teachers to develop the knowledge and skills needed to support their students’ learning.
It is estimated that 15 million new qualified teachers are needed in the region by 2030. Limited teacher’s working conditions, inadequate teacher deployment mechanisms, and ineffective teacher education and professional development put the provision of high-quality, inclusive, and innovative education at risk. To tackle these problems, the work of education professionals needs to be revalorised.
Translating this commitment into a concrete action, the European Union together with the African Union (AU) endorsed the Regional Teachers Initiative and its aim to tackle this crucial shortage in competent teachers at the EU–AU Summit under the EU–Africa Global Gateway Investment Package.
The EU and Member States - Belgium, Finland and France - will work with the AU and African countries, as well as with UNESCO, and in line with the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (PDF), to contribute to an inclusive, motivated, and competent teacher workforce.
The initiative complements national-level education investments by the EU and its Member States. Qualified and motivated teachers will also enable accelerating progress towards UN Sustainable Development Goal 4, to: “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.
Implementation
The Regional Teachers Initiative is open to all countries in Sub-Saharan Africa through continental, sub-regional and multi-country actions. North African countries will also be able to participate in some of the activities.
The initiative will be implemented through the following components
- technical assistance for countries to support the development and implementation of policies, education, and professional development for teachers
- testing and scaling up of successful programmes on teacher education and training focusing on selected priorities (e.g. foundational learning, digital and green skills, gender-responsive pedagogy) including in fragile contexts
- strengthening regional capacity, coordination and frameworks (e.g. the implementation of the Continental Teacher Qualifications Framework and development of a continental digital competency framework for teachers)
- research partnerships (regional and AU-EU) on teacher policies, their satisfaction and well-being, and evidence for better teacher governance and professional development
- Regional knowledge sharing, advocacy, coordination and capacity building for teacher policy and professional development
