Case stories on capacity development and sustainable results

guinea-bissau13GUINEA-BISSAU – Supportingdevelopment of theeducation systemContextIn 2009, the chance of children in Guinea-Bissau attending school was 76 percent,with a 48 percent chance of completingbasic education and a 17 percent chanceof completing secondary education. Ofall children enrolled in first grade, morethan half either had to repeat the year ordropped out. Only 40 percent of basic educationteachers had received pre-servicetraining, and the situation was aggravatedby inadequate curricula and insufficientaccess to textbooks.Following a review of the education sectorin 2009, the Government of Guinea-Bissaurevised its Policy Strategy for Education,and sought IPAD’s support for the policy’simplementation.Development resultsAfter four years of a Community EducationDevelopment project (+Escola/DjuntaMon) and two years of an Education SystemDevelopment Programme, both covering246 basic and secondary schools, teachers’skills rose up to 27 percent, and dropoutsfell by up to 70 percent.A complete reform of the curricula is ongoing,with newly introduced pre-schoolcurricula and revised basic education curriculanow focusing on language skills andcontextualized learning.Improved and affordable teaching materialsand books have been developed andintroduced with extensive teacher participation.Enhanced performanceA sustainable in-service peer-to peertraining system has been developedand rolled out, whereby skilled teachersare identified and selected to train otherteachers, observe their classes, and discussimprovements using structured tools.The Ministry of Education has created aregulatory environment enabling skilledteachers to train their peers, including thenew Teaching Statutory Law, approved in2010, which authorises regular teachers totrain other teachers (Estatuto da CarreiraDocente, Article 27), while reducing theirclass teaching schedules.Upgrading their status has proven to bea sufficient incentive for the peer-trainers,ResultsThe Ministry of Education’s Sector Policy Strategyled a process of reform of the education system.Teachers’ skills rose up to 27 percent, anddropouts fell by up to 70 percent.School curricula are being revised and newteaching material introduced.