Forty percent of school-aged children in Africa do not attend
primary school and 46 million African children have never stepped
foot in a classroom. USAID's goal, and that of the
international community is Education
For All, with every child having access to a basic education
by 2015. To help meet this goal, USAID supports education programs in Benin, Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi , Mali,
Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda and
Zambia .
Education reform is the foundation of USAID's
work to strengthen African education systems. Over
the past decade, the Agency has developed and refined
the Education Sector Support approach to improve the availability,
quality and equity of basic education in Africa, and has
worked with USAID missions and partners to incorporate
this approach into education programming. Education
Sector Support emphasizes support to host government-developed
and led sector reforms and capacity building in order to ensure
sustainability and focus on what children are actually
learning in the classroom or non-formal learning venue.
Although there is a strong consensus in favor of Education For All and education system reform, it is recognized that many African
countries will be unable to reach these goals without substantial
financial inputs and/or creative programming strategies. In
support of this effort, USAID has redoubled its investment
in education to complement long-term education
system reform efforts with near-term assistance to enable
African countries to have an immediate impact on the
challenges of too many children out of school, low quality
of learning, and lack of teachers and learning materials – all
exacerbated by the impacts of HIV/AIDS on the educational
system.
This year,
USAID has begun implementation of The Africa Education
Initiative (AEI ), which will provide $200 million over
the next four years to address the immediate learning needs
of African children. AEI focuses on teacher training;
providing textbooks and other learning tools for children; providing scholarships for girls and other
vulnerable children; increasing parents' involvement in their
children's education by working to make school systems more
transparent and open to reforms proposed by parents; and
mitigating the impacts of HIV/AIDS on the education sector.
AEI Teacher Training: AEI complements
existing teacher training programs by supporting the development
and implementation of new and innovative training methods
that promote innovative and interactive teaching practices. AEI
teacher training activities started in 2003 in Benin, Ghana
, Guinea, Malawi, Mali and Zambia .
Eight thousand, three hundred new teachers were trained in 2003 and over 16,000
existing teachers had their skills upgraded through in-service
training programs. In Benin, 4,500 community recruited
and paid teachers received training for the first time through
AEI. In Guinea, AEI funds were used to expand an innovative
reading instruction program. To date, over 15,000 teachers,
school directors, teacher support personnel and student teachers
have been trained in this reading instructional model which
includes instructional methods, the use of large demonstration
books and student readers. In Ghana, AEI funds were
used to develop an HIV/AIDS curriculum for training teachers. One hundred, twenty-five
tutors and principals have been trained in the new curriculum
and will begin the process of training their colleagues.
AEI Textbooks and other Learning Materials: In January,
2003, a contract was awarded to Hampton University as a first
step in the development of a partnership with a consortium
of five historically black colleges and universities: Elizabeth
City State University, Alabama A&M University, Dillard
University, St. Augustine University, and Albany State
University . This consortium works in close collaboration
with USAID Missions and African education institutions
to develop, publish, and distribute high-quality
learning materials in Benin, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali ,
Senegal and South Africa .
Education Program Design: Last year, USAID provided technical assistance
that led to stronger program design and implementation in
nine African countries. The Agency was instrumental in launching new education
programs in Democratic Republic of Congo and Djibouti . USAID also provided technical assistance that led to improved
program designs in Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa, Sudan
, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia .
Multisectoral Approaches: Multisectoral approaches are becoming increasingly important to USAID's work in education and other sectors. For example, USAID/Zambia's School
Health and Nutrition program delivered and documented measurable
pupil-level improvements in learning following delivery of
de-worming medicine, micronutrients and community-wide nutrition
and health education. Systems are now in place in the
Zambian Ministry of Education to begin expanding the activity, aiming to serve
20 schools in each district within four years, and all schools
in Zambia within six years. As Zambia and USAID began
telling the story by documenting results through reports and
presentations, interest in replicating the success is growing
in Uganda, Ethiopia and Djibouti . Similar multi-sectoral
education strategy support in Ethiopia resulted in focused efforts
to support pupil nutrition in this hunger-stricken country .
USAID's support for HIV/AIDS impact mitigation in education
continued to break new ground through the cooperative agreement
with the University of Natal Mobile Task Team for HIV/AIDS
and Education (MTT). The MTT has assisted many ministries
of education in the southern Africa region to incorporate
HIV impact response in their education systems and the Task Team has helped education ministries in Zambia, Namibia ,
Malawi and KwaZulu Natal in South Africa to adapt their information
systems to gather HIV-sensitive data for improved implementation
of sector plans.