Support for basic education quality management

Despite a decade of reforms and national, regional and international efforts to improve enrolment rates and student achievement, the quality of education remains a major problem on the continent. In February 2018,  IIEP-UNESCO Dakar Office launched a programme to support the management of education quality in sub-Saharan Africa with the support of the French Development Agency (Agence française de développement. )

Our programme approaches quality management as a process of continuous improvement of educational action at all levels of the education system: central administration, decentralised structures, the school and its community. The objective: to assist stakeholders in a sustainable transformation of their professional practices to improve the quality of education.

Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Niger and Senegal contributed to the programme at its inception, before Burundi, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire and Togo joined in 2020. The experience is now shared with seven additional African countries, bringing the total involved to 15 countries. 

Read the brochure 

Original in its approach and method, the programme is comprised of three phases: assess, propose and assist. This is innovative in the sense that barriers to quality education are not assumed - and avenues for improvement are not predefined. The reflections and solutions emanating from the programme are co-constructed with local participants, building on their experience and on promising practices already existing within the education systems. 

• Burkina Faso  (french)
• Burundi (french)
• Cameroon (french)
• Ivory Coast (french)
• Madagascar (french)
• Niger (french)
• Senegal (french)
• Togo  (french)

IIEP-UNESCO Dakar shares the knowledge acquired throughout the project and develops tools, events and resources for a wide community of practitioners, researchers and education experts. 

Workshops

Organized by IIEP-UNESCO Dakar at the end of 2020, a first regional workshop on the importance of education quality management brought together some 30 members of the national programme teams and around 150 participants over four days. It was held as an online webinar. The programme aims to organize a regional event of this nature each year in early December.

Read more about the programme and the results of the first regional workshop in 2020  (in French)
 

The  IIEP-UNESCO Dakar Office for Africa is organising its 2nd regional workshop on education quality management in Africa from 21st to 25th February 2022. The workshop is dedicated to sharing the first results of the programme.

More about the regional workshop 2022 (in French)  Read the general report of the regional experience sharing workshop 21-25 February 2022 (in English) 

Download the Regional Workshop Report (In French)

2024 Regional Experience Sharing Workshop

Access the page dedicated to the 2024 Regional Experience Sharing Workshop. 

Webinars 

Starting in June 2023, IIEP-UNESCO Dakar is organizing a series of webinars to share the results of the program with Technical and Financial Partners (TFPs) in education. Find out more about the webinars.

In order to sustain the program's achievements and to strengthen the capacities of national managers, a training program has been developed. It will be available in 2022.  It is a training module on the management of the quality of education intended for national institutions that already train future management personnel: directors, pedagogical advisors, inspectors, and managers at the central and decentralized levels. This module is intended to be integrated into a pre-existing pedagogical model. 

For more information, see the concept note or the article on the launch of a training course on quality management practices in education.

From Senegal to Madagascar, from Niger to Cameroon,  Burundi, Togo, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, discover the testimonies presenting the impact of our activities. 

General information

Read the brochure

Added value of the programme

Methodological guide and tools

Following the initial feedback from the programme, IIEP-UNESCO Dakar has produced a methodological guide. It describes in detail the approach aimed at establishing a culture of questioning practices in education systems. 

This comprehensive guide is aimed at middle and senior managers in countries who wish to undertake an analysis of education quality management practices at the level of:

• the central administration,
• the decentralised administration,
• schools and their communities.

The guide is complemented by a collection of methodological tools, available in French:
Volume 1 - Les outils de la collecte de données au niveau des établissements scolaires  
Volume 2 -  Les outils de la collecte de données au niveau des services déconcentrés 
Volume 3 -  Les outils de la collecte de données au niveau des services centraux et de l’élaboration du rapport de recherche 

Learn more about the post-diagnostic part of the programme in accessing the document explaining the approach for dealing with workstreams.

National assessments

An assessment of management practices for education quality is carried out for each country in the programme, together with the national action research teams. Find the national reports online in French.

Synthèse des principaux résultats- Burkina Faso  Executive summary- Burkina Faso (English)

Synthèse des principaux résultats - Madagascar Executive summary- Madagascar (English)

Synthèse des principaux résultats - Niger   Executive summary- Niger  (English)

Synthèse des principaux résultats - Sénégal   Executive summary- Senegal (English)

Synthèse des principaux résultats- Togo  Executive summary- Togo (English)

Guidance notes 

A collection of publications on a variety of topics related to quality management in education.

1- Assessing student learning, Yes, but what next ?

2- Strengthening instructional leadership

3-Identifying and promoting innovations

Newsletters: feedback from stakeholders

Throughout the implementation of the programme, find the testimonies of the national teams and focal points in a series of thematic newsletters. 

Focus Letter spécial n°1 –  October 2020, in French
Impact du programme sur les gestes professionnels des agents nationaux 
Focus Letter spécial n°2 –  November 2020, in French
Impact du programme sur le management des agents nationaux
Focus Letter spécial n°3 –  December 2020, in French 
Le développement du praticien réflexif

Thematic notes

Togo: mettre la recherche au service de l'éducation (in french) April 2023

Distance education in the context of COVID-19: Accomplishments and perspectives in sub-Saharan Africa July 2020

The challenge of monitoring quality in distance education June 2020

Memory Aids

Using data to improve the quality of education in Niger by setting up local school achievement monitoring days (JCSAS)

Memory Aid of the first professional practice analysis session with the inspectors (Senegal)

Memory Aid of the first professional practice analysis session with primary schools headmasters (Senegal)

Articles 

Read two articles from the Pole Mag 2019.

Video: methodological guide

Archives of newsletters from the support for basic education quality management program:

• Newsletter 1 (Juillet 2022) (in french)
• Newsletter 2 (Décembre 2022)  (in french)
• Newsletter 3 (Juin 2023)  (in french)

• You are part of a Ministry of Education and want your country to join the program?
• Are you a member of the press and would like to obtain or produce information about the program?
• You are a donor and want to invest in the program?
• You simply want to know more about the program?

CONTACT US! 

Patrick Nkengne 
Programme Manager / Senior Expert in Quality Management 
[email protected]

Contact IIPE-UNESCO Dakar: [email protected]