Enhancing Teacher Education for Bridging the Education Quality Gap in Africa

The fact that there are more schoolchildren in the world than ever before reflects progress. However, many of these children still leave school without basic literacy or mathematical skills, primarily because of a shortage of well-trained teachers. Teachers are the most critical factor in the quality of education and student learning outcomes, so this shortage jeopardizes quality, inclusiveness and equity in education. While the acute shortage of well-qualified teachers is a global concern, the greatest shortage is in sub-Saharan Africa.<br />
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The project uses Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), including computers, the internet and mobile devices, to support target countries in enhancing the capacities of their teacher training institutions. The aim is to increase the quantity and improve the quality of both pre- and in-service teachers. The project contributes to the achievement of the SDGs, particularly SDG 4 on inclusive and equitable quality education and target 4.c on increasing the supply of qualified teachers through international cooperation for teacher education/training in developing countries, and SDG 9 on infrastructure and innovation. <br />
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More specifically, the CFIT project supports a selected number of targeted national key teacher training institutions in the beneficiary countries by:<br />
• Strengthening existing pre-service programmes, particularly through ICT-supported blended training programmes and successful ICT supported innovations<br />
• Strengthening teachers’ continuous in-service professional development, particularly through blended learning modalities and successful ICT supported innovations<br />
• Enhancing the capacity of teacher trainers with ICT competencies to improve the quality of teaching and learning; and,<br />
• Improving teacher education/training institutions’ networks to promote knowledge-sharing on effective strategies and teaching practices.