ADEA Regional Technical Workshop on the issues of the ICQN on Literacy

Date: 
20 December 2010 to 22 December 2010
Location: 
Ouagadougou
Burkina Faso

1. Background

ADEA created the Inter-Country Quality Node on Literacy at the African Regional Conference held in Bamako in September 2007 to reflect its strong commitment to act as a catalyst of innovative policies and practices for qualitative transformation of education through the pooling of ideas, experiences, learning and knowledge.

During the Bamako Conference, meetings of various stakeholder groups were held to chart the way forward and monitor the "African regional conference in support to literacy."

ADEA has organized the meeting of Ministers and Department representatives, with the aim of assessing their support and interest in participating in an Inter-Country Quality Node on Literacy as a means to reinforce the ministries’ capacity in the field of literacy.

The Ministers and the department representatives have approved the launching of an inter-country quality node (ICQN) on Literacy and made the following specific recommendations:

  • to hold two or three day- 'retreat' for ministers on literacy, which would help to ensure sound leadership at country level for the development and integration of literacy policies and setting priorities. Those mentioned were: the professionalization of literacy programs, the need for cost-effective approaches, the need for orienting to "life skills" (knowledge for Empowerment), and the need for an inter-sectoral approach;
  • to ensure that there is no duplication with the management of the Inter-African initiatives such as the African Union’s Second Decade of Education for Africa (2006-2015), and to seek collaboration with the African Union (AU) on this policy issue.

Following Bamako Conference, the Minister of Basic Education and Literacy of Burkina Faso has initiated the monitoring of these recommendations through conducting a reflection on the status of non-formal teachers. Moreover, she has been entrusted by her peers in Lyon for providing leadership for this node.

2. Rationale

The analysis of education policies in Africa reveals a large convergence of views on non-formal education as a right internationally recognized, a priority among the sectors to be developed to accelerate the fight against poverty.

Extensive researches conducted by senior experts have concluded that education programs based on local languages and including intercultural dimensions have better outcomes in terms of quality, development of a literate environment and strengthening of the learner’s potential towards the entrenchment of democracy.

With this in mind and knowing that no nation in the world can claim to develop 'closed' and be self-sufficient in all aspects including scientific knowledge, the Minister of Basic Education and Literacy of Burkina Faso, President of the Regional Council for Education and Literacy in Africa (CREAA) and leader of the Inter-Country Quality Node on Literacy, in partnership with ADEA, wants to organize a technical workshop on the issues of that pole.

Documents of the workshop

The holding of the technical workshop on issues of the Inter-Country Quality Node on Literacy will eventually enable to set up within the African space a real strategy to optimize the quality of the literacy programs so as to contribute to poverty reduction through a better understanding of sustainable development.

The beneficiaries of this workshop will be able to better play their networking role of exchanging and finding out solutions on common challenges.

3. Objectives of the workshop

Globale objective 

  • It is to develop a strategy enabling to identify challenges common to Africa to be taken up by the ICQN on Literacy.

Specific objectives

  • To make an inventory of the quality of literacy in member countries;
  • To develop an action plan, based on issues identified, that takes into account the shared concerns of CREAA members and other African countries;
  • To contribute to the enhancement of the actions of the leader of ICQN on Literacy 

4. Expected outcomes

  • Inventory on the quality of literacy and non formal education in the participating countries is made;
  • An action plan that takes into account the common concerns of participating countries is developed out of the issues identified and made available to the ICQN Ministers;
  • The ICQN leader’s actions are identified and shared;
  • The guide of continuous training for the supervisors is amended. 

5. Methodology

The activities of the workshop will be taking place in plenary and work groups.The plenary will be devoted to:

The plenary will be devoted to: 

  • The presentation of papers of the member countries on the quality of literacy, leading to the issue formulation;
  • The presentation of the guide of continuous training for the supervisors.

Work groups:

Following these presentations followed by discussions, participants will be split up into work groups for issue analysis and prioritization. 

The outputs will enable to develop a program of actions for the Inter-Country Quality Node on Literacy. 

6. Participation

  • Literacy Directors from different countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Gabon, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Chad, Togo, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Gambia;
  • Representatives of ADEA, UIL, ACALAN, and BREDA;
  • SEP/CREAA and 2 officers from PCU/CREAA;
  • 2 contacts.