THE STATE OF African education
According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Sub-Saharan Africa will account for two-thirds - or 6.2 million - of the new teachers needed globally by 2030. As the school-age population expands, this growing demand is exacerbated; for every 100 primary school students in 2012, there will be 147 children in 2030. Countries in the region will have to fill almost four million existing teaching positions by 2030, as well as create and fill 2.2 million new ones.
Unfortunately, simply adding more space at established teacher training institutions (TTI) will not achieve this target. Nor will it engender much-needed improvements in student learning and skill-development. TTIs’ current pedagogy emphasises theoretical understanding of best practices, and not the practical, field-tested skills that today’s teachers actually need in order to serve today’s students in today’s classrooms. TTIs also fail to attract the highest quality young professionals, deepening challenges associated with teacher training and increasing costs associated with retraining and attrition.
Instill Education believes that transformative teaching will have unparalleled influence on student outcomes, that a consistent pipeline of qualified, effective teachers will enable African Education to exceed the charge set by the Millennium Development Goals, and that although large scale education reform must start with education accessibility, it can neither survive nor flourish without in-classroom teaching excellence.
