Bamako + 5: How best to manage contractual teachers with the view of ensuring the success of Education For All (EFA)

 

BAMAKO, Mali, October 23, 2009/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Contractual teachers will once again be at the center of debates at a

conference to be organized in Bamako from 27 to 29 October by the Association for the

Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), the World Bank, Education International, and

the Malian Ministry of Basic Education, Literacy and National Languages.

In 2004, ADEA took the initiative of setting up an initial meeting in Bamako to examine the

challenges ahead, particularly in the eleven French-speaking countries with regard to this new

category of teachers. Faced with, one the one hand, the immense needs in additional

teachers in order to fulfill the objectives of Education for All, and, on the other hand, the

limited national capacities in the supply of qualified teachers, various countries took to hiring

contractual teachers. In some countries, these teachers have now outnumbered State teachers.

Even though the recruitment of contractual teachers has enabled, of course, real progress in

terms of school enrolment, it has also made evident the risks involved with regard to the

quality of the teaching dispensed due to the low academic level and insufficient training of

such teachers. It had thus become necessary to carry out a serious analysis of the problems

involved and to envisage measures to be undertaken to improve the recruitment, training,

management and monitoring of contractual teachers. The first meeting in Bamako ended in

the adoption of the 2004 Bamako Consensus and of recommendations centered on the

professional development and management of the careers of contractual teachers.

Five years later – thus the title Bamako +5 –, it is time to sum up the situation in the eleven

French-speaking countries who were present in Bamako in 2004; study what progress has

been made and take note of new opportunities for improvement in the working conditions and

in the lives of those contractual teachers; draw up an inventory of the extent of the

phenomenon in the Lusophone and English-speaking countries, and; analyze the lessons to be

learnt with regards to recruitment, training and professional development.

Press release

For immediate release

Association for the Development of Education in Africa

African Development Bank (AfDB)

Temporary Relocation Agency

BP 323 – 1002 Tunis Belvédère – Tunisia

Tel.: +216/ 71 10 39 00

Email: adeacommunication@iiep.unesco.org Web site: www.ADEAnet.org 2/2

The participants will deepen their reflection by examining in a more precise manner the

multiple aspects of the new challenges that lay ahead: the supply and demand of teachers,

their recruitment, deployment, working conditions, initial training, professional development,

and the mobilization of resources. They will also spend a number of sessions assessing the

new opportunities available and will discuss, on the last day, in parallel thematic workshops,

specific subjects such as the impact of HIV/AIDS, the situation in conflict zones, the use of

information and communication technology in education, new partnerships, the role of the

university, and of research.

The 22 countries that have been invited will particularly have to take decisions on two major

documents drawn up in July 2007 during the follow-up workshop held in Dakar: one

concerns the recruitment, training and the professional development of contractual teachers,

whilst the other has to do with the career plans, rights and obligations, possibilities of

promotion, and guarantees relating to social protection. During the three days of the

conference they will have the possibility of exchanging ideas about the lack of teachers

needed to make a success of Education for All. In this respect, UNESCO’s Institute of

Statistics (UIS) has estimated that Africa needs more than 2.4 Million more teachers.

A large number of participants are expected to attend Bamako +5, representing a range of

stakeholders involved in the development of education: Ministries of Education, Finance, the

Civil Service and Labor, as well as teacher unions, parent associations, agencies for

cooperation and development, governmental and non-governmental international

organizations, and the private sector.

 

SOURCE 

Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA)