DAE Country Working Groups
This first article of the series `What Strategies for Capacity-Building?' focuses on Country Working Groups which have been established in 34 sub-Saharan countries by the DAE Working Groups on the Teaching Profession and on Education Statistics.
The Côte d'Ivoire national team, established by the Working Group on the Teaching Profession (WGTP), was constituted in 1993. Since then, it has undertaken a thorough examination of the teaching profession in Côte d'Ivoire. The outcomes, largely based on the findings of a questionnaire designed by the members of the national team with methods input from IREDU (Institut de recherche sur l'économie de l'éducation of the University of Burgundy) were used to develop a National Action Plan. Now that the diagnosis has been made, the National Action Plan developed, and some measures are being implemented, Côte d'Ivoire is developing methodological guides to assist countries who have not taken part in the Teacher Management and Support (TMS) program to develop similar action plans.
This is an example of the approach chosen by some DAE working groups who have established country working groups. This has helped stimulate the development of local and regional capacities. The WGTP works with 26 national teams. The Working Group on Education Statistics (WGES) has also set up 12 national teams in Benin, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Chad, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, Zambia, and Zimbabwe as part of the National Education Statistical Information Systems (NESIS) project. This project is aimed at strengthening national information systems in sub-Saharan Africa.
Promoting national considerations
Both the WGTP and the WGES are drawing on the experience of local experts capable of addressing issues related to teacher management and information systems.
The national dimension is considered as essential. National experts are better equipped to understand the situation and the problems affecting their country and will be the best advocates for decisions which will stand a better chance of receiving political support and of being implemented.
In-country perception and proper political backup are part of the rationale which has guided the WGTP in its choice of criteria for the establishment of national teams.
Main characteristics of the country working groups
WGTP Country Working Groups meet two basic requirements:
• Political support
From the outset, country working groups teams are given an official mandate from the Ministry of Education so that the work accomplished will receive adequate support from the government and will be included in the country's education policy.
• Representation of all sectors involved
The complexity of the problems affecting the management and support of teachers has led the WGTP to adopt a strategy which would enable all the key actors of the education system and related ministries to be consulted.
Membership within country working groups varies from one country to another as systems and organizations vary. However, whenever possible, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Service, the Ministry of Finance, teachers unions, inspectors, school principals, parents' associations, and groups representing broader national interests.
Guinea's country working group includes three members from the technical departments of the Ministry of Education (Personnel Division of the Administrative and Financial Affairs Bureau, Statistics Division and Planning Division), three representatives from each of the education departments (Department for Basic Education, Department for Secondary Education, and Department for Technical and Vocational Education); a representative from the Evaluation Unit; and a representative of the Inspectorship. The team is headed by a senior public servant who is an adviser to the minister. Two representatives from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Public Service as well as a representative from a teachers' union will soon join the group.
The NESIS project of the Working Group on Educational Statistics also involves a large number of actors. To carry out the NESIS modules, the WGES has set up a structure so that the national team may liaise with a consultative committee and technical committees part of the education ministry. In Zambia, a national team (composed of ten officers from the Ministry of Education, the University of Zambia, and the Central Statistics Bureau) and a consultative committee (with representatives from the Ministry of Education, the University of Zambia, the Central Statistics Bureau, and the International Labor Organization) were formed. They report to the Permanent Secretaries or to the Minister of Education.
Capacity-Building results
• Strengthening of technical capacities
The NESIS project has produced technical modules on particular aspects such as the management and keeping of school records and school census methods (Ethiopia and Zambia), the use of indicators for the establishment of norms for the quality of schooling (Benin), or assessing the quality of data for the establishment of basic indicators (Guinea).
These modules were developed by African experts, ministerial officers, and members of the national teams. These experts now constitute a network of African specialists which can provide technical assistance to countries that have not taken part in the pilot projects but are interested in the issues dealt in the NESIS modules.
Likewise, national teams taking part in the Teacher Management and Support Program (WGTP) are developing manuals which will provide methodological guidelines to countries wishing to design their own national action plans.
• Strengthening of institutions
While it is difficult to measure the impact of these activities in terms of outcome, the work conducted by the country working groups is bound to strengthen African institutions.
In order to help ministers identify experts working in the country working groups and strengthen ties between members of a growing network, DAE is preparing a list of members for each Country Working Group. The list will be circulated to the ministers, the members of the country working groups, and the working group coordinators.
Two more working groups will be establishing country teams shortly: the recently created Working Group on Non-Formal Education and the Working Group on Finance and Education.
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