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USAID Education Activities in Africa

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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.

 

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