Joint seminar TESSA / IFADEM in Brussels

Participating representatives :

• for TESSA :
  • Prof. Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, TESSA Executive Chair, Ghana
  • Michele Deane, TESSA OU
  • Amivi Komlan, Direction des Formations de Lomé, Togo
  • Sally Pritchard, TESSA OU
  • Freda Wolfenden, TESSA Director
• for IFADEM :
  • Marion Alcaraz (IFADEM)
  • Louise Bertrand (OIF)
  • Christian Depover (Université de Mons-Hainaut, Belgique)
  • Papa-Youga Dieng (OIF)
  • Pierre-Jean Loiret (AUF)
  • Victoire Nahimana (ministère de l’Éducation, Burundi)
  • Lolona Rakotovoa (ENS Antananarivo)
  • Valérie Spaëth (mniversité de Franche Comté, France)
  • Jacques Wallet (mniversité de Rouen, France)

"We, the representatives of Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa (TESSA) and the Initiative francophone pour la formation à distance des maîtres (IFADEM) participated in a joint seminar from 17th – 18th October 2011 in Brussels, Belgium in order to review the mission and activities of the two organisations with a view to possible joint activities. The seminar also offered an opportunity for sharing experience in the professional development of school teachers in Francophone and Anglophone countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Discussion

Recognizing that teachers are at the core of education delivery;

Reaffirming our commitment to the education and training of high quality teachers to meet the commitment of African countries towards Education For All (EFA);

Convinced that teaching is a profession and requires sufficient initial professional preparation and continuous professional development;

Cognisant of the commitment of African countries to the targets of EFA and of the Millennium Development Goals, and the prioritisation of teacher education to ensure the provision of sufficient and properly qualified teachers with the relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes to teach effectively;

Noting the similarities and differences in the partnership, delivery and governance models used by the two initiatives, the resources used, the subject areas covered, the technology used, and the philosophy underlying them;

And convinced that both TESSA and IFADEM have a valid contribution to make in the field of teacher education and development;

Action Agreed

That further discussions between the two organisations should take place to explore and map out in detail activities that can be carried out by the two initiatives in the following areas :

• Sharing learning materials through our respective websites
• Auditing international funding calls for tenders for potential joint actions across Anglophone and Francophone Africa.
• Ensuring that we include each other in communicating new areas of development of our respective initiatives
• Taking opportunities where appropriate to participate jointly in conferences, colloquia and other events, thereby raising awareness of issues pertaining to teacher development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Whilst carrying out the above activities, we will endeavour to develop a shared understanding of modes of operation and questions for research and enquiry."
TESSA and IFADEM, October 2011

TESSA

TESSA (Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa) is a research and development initiative led by the Open University UK. It aims to raise the profile of the importance of classroom based learning for teachers and contribute to an improvement in the quality of teacher education and development in Africa. It does this primarily through a set of openly available resources which are incorporated into pre-service and in-service teacher education and training programmes implemented by relevant institutions across Africa.

To date, 75 units have been developed for primary level, all of which have been contextualised to ten country contexts and are available in 4 languages. Secondary level units are forthcoming.

IFADEM

IFADEM (Initiative francophone pour la formation à distance des maîtres) Co-driven by the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the Initiative francophone pour la formation à distance des maîtres (IFADEM) (the Francophone Initiative for the Distance Education of School Teachers) contributes to the international efforts to improve the quality of basic education for all.

IFADEM aims to improve primary teachers’ competences in pedagogy, in the teaching of French and the teaching in French of science and citizenship so as to enhance the quality of education and give back to teachers their love of teaching. IFADEM supports states in defining a continuous teacher education strategy for their countries. It does so by providing an operational teacher training programme, partly dispensed by distance education. This training programme is adapted to the needs of each country’s education system and uses information and communication technologies.