Unlocking Quality Secondary Education Opportunities in Africa
Leaders in Teaching unlocks quality secondary education opportunities for the African continent. Investing in teachers improves learning outcomes and creates life and livelihood opportunities for young people.
It rests on four pillars:
Urgent: The youth employment challenge
There is an urgent need to improve employment prospects for young people because by 2030, the number of young Africans in the labour market will increase to 375 million.
There is a tremendous urgency and an opportunity to address the continent's youth employment challenge. Programs that will drive transformation at the system level, such as Leaders in Teaching, are critical to addressing the scale of the challenge.
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Sub-Saharan Africa is the third fastest growing region of the world, with 4.6% average annual growth in GDP.
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High-quality secondary education has a significant role in alleviating poverty and improving employment prospects for young people. Secondary school is the time when youth acquire skills and knowledge needed to become productive citizens and workers.
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It’s not just the years spent in school that are important: the quality of learning is critical for a young person’s future income and productivity.
Secondary education must prepare young people for work
Secondary education is becoming the main pathway to dignified and fulfilling work for African youth. Improving the quality and relevance of secondary education is a critical element in preparing them for success in the workforce.
BUT...
Teachers across Africa face difficulties in recruitment, motivation, training, and professional development.
Schools are often under-resourced, teaching conditions are poor, and compensation is inadequate. These challenges are especially acute in remote areas.
Teachers are at the front line of education
By making long-term, targeted investments in teachers, Leaders in Teaching mobilizes people at the front lines of education and prepares youth across the continent to transition to meaningful employment and lead successful lives.
Teachers are one of the biggest influences in a young person's life.
Investing in teachers will have a ripple effect
By working with the government to enhance the skills of secondary school teachers with a focus on STEM and ICT, learning outcomes for students will improve.
Leaders in Teaching aims to improve science, math, and ICT knowledge and teaching skills for new and experienced teachers, improve the capacity of head teachers to create positive instructional environments, and recruit young people into the profession.
Launching in Rwanda, over the next five years, Leaders in Teaching aims to support more than 10,000 teachers and school leaders, impacting the education of at least 250,000 secondary school students.
- Rwanda’s Vision 2020 highlights that the delivery of high-quality education is critical to Rwanda’s development objectives and goals.
- Rwanda has made significant progress in strengthening its education systems over the past decade. It has achieved gender parity at the primary level and has made significant progress in strengthening its education system over the past decade.
Developing 21st-Century Skills
Strengthening learning outcomes and supporting the development of 21st century skills are critical to leveraging the demographic dividend in Africa and will contribute to the stability and economic development on the continent.
While there has been considerable success in getting students into the education system, ensuring that they acquire the skills they need to enter the labour force is the challenge Leaders in Teaching is hoping to address.
Partners
AIMS
nexteinstein.org
As a Leaders in Teaching partner under the TRAIN and LEAD pillars, the AIMS Teacher Training Program equips secondary school teachers with gender-responsive teaching tools for math and science, leads the establishment of smart classrooms, and supports the strengthening of school leadership. AIMS’ public engagement and outreach increases public support for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, particularly for young women.
Carnegie Mellon University - Africa
As a Leaders in Teaching partner under the RECRUIT pillar, CMU works with UNICEF to provide technical support to strengthen data-driven decision-making in education. CMU will also map international best practices in education data and explore opportunities to apply “big data” and artificial intelligence to public sector planning and management.
Inspire Educate, and Empower (IEE) Rwanda
As a Leaders in Teaching partner under the RECRUIT pillar, IEE Rwanda will pilot a program that matches talented female high school graduates with teaching assistantships. Working in 75 schools alongside qualified teachers, these assistants will provide support to students in subjects such as math and science. The pilot is designed to attract the best and brightest students to the profession and equip them with relevant experiences and skills.
Laterite and University of Cambridge, REAL Centre
As Leaders in Teaching learning partners, Laterite and the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre aim to develop evidence of improved teacher performance and student learning, particularly for those who are most at risk. This evidence will be used to improve the initiative and provide lessons for other contexts.
Universtity of Rwanda - College of Education
As a Leaders in Teaching partner under the TRAIN pillar, UR-CE will strengthen pre-service teacher training to support the delivery of Rwanda’s Competency-Based Curriculum, provide quality practicum opportunities that help student teachers put theory into practice, promote the integration of ICT, and support academic staff to undertake relevant education research.
UNICEF
As a Leaders in Teaching partner under the RECRUIT pillar, UNICEF works with the Ministry of Education, the Rwanda Education Board, Carnegie Mellon University Africa, teacher training colleges, and others to strengthen and improve the use of data for planning and decision-making. UNICEF will lead the assessment process to determine overall data needs, help design an integrated management system to support educational leadership and facilitate decision-making.
VVOB - education for development
As a Leaders in Teaching partner under the LEAD and TRAIN pillars, VVOB works closely with the University of Rwanda-College of Education (UR-CE) and the Rwanda Education Board. VVOB works to strengthen school leadership through mentoring and coaching, to support teachers and enable high-quality instruction. VVOB and UR-CE together deliver certificate and diploma courses for system and school-based leaders and provide opportunities for school leaders to encourage one another in supportive professional learning communities.