Academy
About the Executive Education and Policy Academy
Education systems in Africa are in crisis. Learning poverty, defined as the inability for 10-year-old children to read and understand an age-appropriate text, affects nine out of ten children in sub-Saharan Africa. Teachers are key to improve educational outcomes, but many lack the training they need to ensure that children learn. Beyond the current learning crisis, education systems face a range of medium- and long-term challenges, including changing labor markets that require individuals to acquire new skills, climate change, and conflicts. Education systems have a fundamental role to play for sustainable development, but often fall short. IICBA’s aim is to empower teachers for all learners to thrive. Through a range of course of various lengths, the Executive Education and Policy Academy was launched in the spring of 2023. It targets officials in Ministries of Education and other education and civil society leaders to equip them with the knowledge they need to improve teacher policies and education systems in Africa. Apart from training courses, this page also highlights a few other events that are managed by IICBA, including events organized under the KIX Africa 19 Hub.
2nd KIX Research Symposium
Sub-Saharan Africa is affected by a massive learning crisis with nine out of ten children not able to read and understand an age-appropriate text by age 10 . Evidence-based policymaking can contribute to improving the performance of education systems, while also making those systems more resilient and inclusive. But for this to be the case, data must be available and analyzed. Efforts are need for both data generation/availability and data analysis. The first KIX Continental Research Symposium was held in October 2022 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 285 participants from 51 countries (including 41 African countries). This second Symposium will be held on October 3-5, 2023, in Dakar, Senegal, ahead of 2024 as the African Union’s Year of Education. The theme of the Symposium will be “Strengthening Data Generation and Analysis for Resilient, Inclusive, and Better Performing Education Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa.” It will aim to: (1) Give an opportunity for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to share findings from their respective work; (2) Promote learning and dialogue among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers on how to use data to improve educational outcomes; and (3) Promote evidence-based policymaking at the country level. The call for paper is open (the brochure is available here).
Course 2023-3: Improving Student Learning through Better Teacher Policies in Africa (May 2023)
Teachers are key to improve learning outcomes for students in Africa. In turn, teacher policies are key to empower teachers for all learners to thrive. Taking advantage of the annual meeting of the Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities (AFTRA), this short course will be held in person on May 11, 2023, in Windhoek, Namibia. The theme of AFTRA’s annual meeting is Transforming Education in Africa: Teachers, Teaching, and the Teaching Profession. This course targets senior officials attending the AFTRA annual meeting with a focus on how to rely on evidence to inform policymaking. The course will include three sessions of 1hour each addressing the following questions: (1) How do teacher characteristics and practices affect student learning in Africa?; (2) What types of policies can countries adopt to strengthen the teaching profession; and (3) To what extent have countries adopted such policies and how can countries assess where they stand versus best practices? An optional component consists in implementing a specific project on how to strengthen the teaching profession.
Course 2023-2: Mental Health and Psychosocial Support for Teachers in Africa (May 2023)
Since 2020, IICBA has been partnering with the Regional Office for Southern Africa to build resilience and strengthen psychosocial support for Teachers and Teacher Educators in selected Sub-Saharan Africa countries. The project is anchored within the framing of UNESCO’s Africa program which focuses on “Our Rights, Our Lives, Our Future” (O3). It has supported (i) an assessment of the psychosocial impacts on teachers of the COVID-19 pandemic; (ii) the development of a contextualized sub-regional strategy on strengthening mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) for teachers in Africa; (iii) the development of an evidence-based psychosocial support manual, school-based training manual and tools for teachers and Teacher educators; and pilot training for teachers, educators and education experts in four countries i.e. Ethiopia, Eswatini, Kenya and Malawi (iv) a self-paced e-learning course for teachers will be developed. This course aims to capacitate expert trainers (Master Trainers) with the skills and techniques to use the MHPSS guide, and further cascade and institutionalize MHPSS services in the pre- and in-service teacher programs in Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, and Uganda.
Course 2023-1: Evidence-based Policymaking for Education in Africa (May-October 2023)
Evidence-based policymaking is essential to improve educational outcomes for children, youth, and even adults. This course targets country focal points and other key partners in the Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) Africa 19 Hub initiative. The purpose of the hub is to facilitate the effective exchange, mobilization, and utilization of evidence, knowledge, and innovation for education policy review, formulation, and implementation among 19 Anglophone countries in Eastern, Western, and Southern Africa along six thematic areas. These themes include: (i) improving teaching and learning, (ii) strengthening learning assessment systems, (iii) strengthening early childhood care and education, (iv) achieving gender equality in and through education, (v) leaving no one behind, and (vi) meeting the data challenge in education. This course aims to provide KIX country focal points and other key partners with a structured introduction to the process of relying on solid evidence to inform policymaking.
