West African curriculum framework for bilingual education

UIL, together with the UNESCO Office Multi-sectoral Regional Office for West Africa in Dakar (BREDA) and the UNESCO Regional Office in Abuja is coordinating the development of a West African curriculum framework for formal and non-formal bilingual education. As part of this initiative seven country teams from Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo took part in a workshop from 18 to 20 August 2014 in Cotonou, Benin.

The workshop was opened by the Minister of Culture, Literacy, Arts and Crafts and Tourism and the Secretary General of the Ministry of Pre-primary and Primary Education of the Republic of Benin and the Director of the UNESCO Regional Office in Abuja .

The curriculum framework outlines the basic competences required by teachers in bilingual education and is accompanied by a teachers’ guide. The framework aims at operationalizing actions adopted in the Policy Guide on the Integration of African languages and Cultures into Education Systems, which was adopted by the Ministers of Education present at the African Conference on the Integration of African Languages and Cultures into Education in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 2010.

Link to Policy Guide: http://uil.unesco.org/fileadmin/keydocuments/Africa/en/policy_guide_sep_web_en.pdf