It is in this context that the UNESCO Office in Dakar (BREDA) organizes an analysis and technical validation workshop for a qualification framework for primary school teachers in nine pilot countries of the ECOWAS region (Benin, Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso and Nigeria) to be held 10-12 November 2014.

"The national and regional frameworks are imperative to ensure not only the mobility of teachers in the ECOWAS region but also to the training and professionalization of teachers in these countries in West Africa," said the Director of the UNESCO Dakar office, Ann Therese Ndong-Jatta.

"We must never forget that the teacher issue is at the heart of quality teaching and learning, and as long as it stays unresolved, the performance of the African education systems will stay mediocre," she added.

The experts participating in the workshop will focus on the analysis of competency profiles for primary teachers of their respective countries as well as the outline of a common competency framework. The approach will also include a draft of qualification descriptors, and the development of a roadmap that will define the next steps for the operationalization of the national frameworks and regional qualifications framework for primary school teachers. The meeting will end with a technical validation of the various documents submitted for the purpose.

The workshop is a follow up of two other workshops - an introductory workshop on the development of national and regional qualification frameworks for teachers in sub-Saharan Africa, held in June 2012 in Dakar, and a workshop on qualification frameworks for teacher held on the 30th and 31 of July, 2013 also in Dakar.

The workshop is organized in close collaboration with the UNESCO office in Abuja, the International Task Force on Teachers for EFA, the CONFEMEN, the International Organization of the Francophonie, l’Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, the Francophone Initiative for Open-Distance Teacher Training and UNESCO - International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa.