'The successes being seen are not just academic engagement, but also the development of 21st century skills, including higher-order thinking, creativity and ICT skills, and also personal development, which includes the ability to share, open-mindedness and tolerance.' - Ministry Central Inspector
Life cycle
2016 - 22
Country/Region
Algeria
Client/Partner
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)
Vision
To improve the quality of teaching and learning in Algerian schools by developing pedagogy and school leadership, thereby improving learner outcomes and working towards national education reform.
Situation
Algeria guarantees free access to mandatory education for children up to the age of 16. But despite a number of recent reform initiatives, the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) recognises that a range of structural issues still needs to be addressed, including:
- high school dropout rates
- a perception by universities and employers that school leavers do not have appropriate 21st Century skills weaknesses in the teacher training system and in the capacity of school inspectors to deliver modern child-centered training approaches to new teachers
- a general lack of instructional leadership from school leaders.
Implementation
We have partnered with the Central Inspection Team of the MoNE to co-create a range of child-centred pedagogical classroom materials, training manuals and professional competencies frameworks. The project’s methodology involves our contracted experts building the capability of Algerian inspectors and school leaders and then drawing on their expertise to co-create educational products and frameworks which are eventually cascaded across the country. Examples of co-created products included a Teacher Competencies Framework and accompanying training modules for pedagogy inspectors, school leadership for pedagogy and school improvement training modules, training modules in child-centered approaches to English Language Teaching, and the creation of an Inspector Competencies Framework to support their professional development.
Impact
The key impact from this project will be improvements in learning outcomes; including employability, student retention rates, in-school performance and the capability to manage continuous improvements. It is too early for conclusive data to emerge in these areas, but evidence towards this is growing, including:
- increased trust with the MoNE resulting in more ambitious planning and increased classroom access for the project
- 53,000 new teachers trained using child-centered training techniques introduced by the project
- Teacher Competency Framework which has been cascaded to all pedagogical inspectors
- Inspector Competency Framework which has been successfully piloted and will be cascaded to all inspectors in Phase Four.
The project has created a ripple effect, where teachers and school leaders not directly supported by the project are interacting with directly supported schools and independently acquiring the tools and techniques that the project has introduced.
Mutual benefit
Education is one of the pillars leading to economic growth in both the UK and Algeria, supporting young people to access economic opportunities through improvements to the quality of teaching and educational outcomes. This will also contribute to broader UK-Algeria trade and investment opportunities in the education sector. The project is also leading to enhanced trust between the UK and Algeria, with ourselves and four UK partner organisations enjoying enhanced access to the MoNE and to Algerian schools. MoNE is also looking to adapt UK system approaches in developing its inspectorate, school leadership and teaching capabilities.