Senegal: Teachers work to improve education
In the context of the EFAIDS Programme and Education for All in particular, the four teachers’ unions which constitute COSSEL (Senegalese Committee of Teachers Unions United against HIV/AIDS) held a workshop at the end of April on the reinforcement of teachers’ capacities on education-related matters.
Sixty-four teachers from the region attended the workshop in Thiès, where the Senegalese Decennial Programme for Education and Training (DPET) and its component on girls’ education were discussed.
Senegal has chosen to integrate its National Plan of Action on EFA into the Decennial Programme for Education. The integration initiative relates to efforts to pursue the Dakar Framework of Action, giving priority to basic education as well as to the development of early childhood education. In 2004, the annual review of the first phase (2000-2004) of the DPET concluded that notable progress had been made in improving access to education. The gross enrolment rate went from 69% in 2000 to 80% in 2004; the gap between the enrolment rate of boys and girls in primary schools decreased. Also many new classrooms were built and financing improved. However, huge inadequacies still remain in the quality of learning, in higher education and in managing education against a backdrop of decentralisation in Senegal.
Teachers have a central role to play in the formulation of school projects. An efficient cascade training scheme implemented by the trained teachers will improve the education system in the country.
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