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Guidelines towards the development of teacher competence profiles

Following the above pilots and an international study on teacher competencies and standards, EI and Oxfam Novib recently developed ‘Guidelines Towards a Competence Profile for Primary Teachers’. The guidelines are designed to be a dynamic tool, mainly for use by national stakeholders, especially education unions, civil society organisations and policy makers, and other partners to develop their own teacher-competence profiles or other similar instruments, taking into account local context and needs.

Future prospects

New funding to scale up Quality-Ed activities in Mali has been secured. The funding will be used to train and upgrade the skills of over 2,000 contract teachers in the next three years, leading to their certification, recognition and integration into the civil service. EI and Oxfam Novib are actively seeking additional funding to scale up the project in Uganda and expand to other countries. Through this collaborative effort with public authorities, teacher-education institutions and civil society, and education organisations aim to contribute to the improvement of the quality and the  professional status of teachers,  to quality education for all, and the achievement of international targets for education.

Mali: Strong campaign for improvement

Furthermore, the Quality-Ed partners in Mali translated the competencies profile into three local languages. In 2011, the partners carried out a study on “Reducing Barriers for Community Schools to Become Qualified Teachers”. They also produced and validated a guide for integrating innovations from non-formal education in the curriculum. The partners mounted a strong media and advocacy campaign and produced a DVD highlighting the characteristics of a good teacher in Mali. Teachers in new community schools now have the same benefits as civil service teachers.

Uganda: More focus on life-skills and mother tongue education

In Uganda, the partners also lobbied the Ministry of Education to adopt a new life-skills curriculum and an implementation strategy for mother-tongue education. These materials have been approved for use in schools as government educational materials, and include 8,000copies of the life-skills curriculum, 10,000copies of the competencies profile, 5,000 copies of gender responsive pedagogy, 10,000 copies of the mother-tongue education strategy, and 10,000 copies of the head teachers’ manual.

Thirty-two resource persons and seven pre-service tutors in four pilot districts are now better prepared to offer support to teachers in delivering lessons on life-skills, gender responsiveness and the thematic curriculum. Two hundred and forty head teachers and the same number of deputies have been equipped with skills to become better leaders through training workshops using the newly produced manuals.

In Uganda and Mali, Quality-Ed’s participative, consensus and bridge-building approach and mainstreaming of the agreed initiatives has led to local ownership of the project and higher prospects for project success and sustainability.

Teacher competence profile developed and adopted

Started in 2007, the project has implemented two successful pilots in Mali and Uganda. Partners in these countries have developed a competencies profile of a primary school teacher, highlighting the knowledge, skills and other essential attributes necessary for teachers at this level to deliver quality education to all learners.

This has been done through an inclusive process involving teacher unions, civil society, teacher education institutions, the Ministry of Education and Local Government, among others. In each of the countries, the  competencies profile has been adopted as an official government document, thanks to advocacy efforts led by EI’s affiliates, the Syndicat National de l'Education et de la Culture(SNEC-UNTM) in Mali, and the Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU) in Uganda.