The Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (Education Department) took part, on July 7, 2021, in the virtual Regional Capacity-Building Workshop on Teacher Policy Development in Africa, organized by UNESCO (International Institute for Capacity-Building in Africa (IICBA) and the Teacher Task Force (TTF)).
The workshop was attended by experts in teacher training and development from Education Ministries in African countries, the Teacher Task Force, and relevant partners from international and regional organizations.
The workshop aimed to :
- Increase participants’ knowledge and capacity in relation to the teacher policy development process, the dimensions of teacher policy, and how policy development work can be better operationalized at the national level;
- Disseminate the various useful resources and tools for teacher policy development, mainly Teacher Policy Development Guide (2019) and the Guide on Teaching Policies and Learning Outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa : Issues and Options (2016);
- Identify areas of complementarity and difference between the global guide and the African contextualized guide;
- Create a platform for education specialists in regional offices and other stakeholders to share the best practices and challenges encountered in technically supporting national teacher policy development.
ALECSO was represented in this workshop by Mrs. Jalila Labidi who reviewed ALECSO’s efforts in terms of teacher policy development, including the holding of specialized ministerial conferences that produced recommendations for the upgrading of teachers. Moreover, the Organization has prepared plans and baseline documents to inform national teacher policy development processes. It has also worked to enhance teacher capacities, by providing training to Arab senior teacher-trainers on the latest scientific methods and approaches.
Mrs. Labidi indicated that ALECSO has implemented, as part of the World Bank-funded “Arab Regional Agenda for Improving Education Quality” (ARAIEQ), a sub-program hosted by the Queen Rania Teacher Academy (Amman, Jordan), namely “The Arab Program on Teacher Policies and Professional Development”, which aims to enhance methods of teacher training, development and upgrading, and to develop legislation to improve the moral, material, and professional conditions of teachers.
