Raise your hand... / Lève la main... for a sustainable expansion of the education sector in Africa

The education system in Burkina Faso and Mali is marked by multiple problems in the education and training of primary and secondary students. In addition to the problems of insufficient premises, equipment and teaching materials, other major problems must be taken into account. Among these problems are the low quality of teacher training and the near inability of education authorities to provide retraining for teachers. Taking this last aspect into account, HOPE’87 Burkina Faso together with its partners from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research has implemented this project to facilitate real quality education in Burkina Faso and Mali. The project has enabled the training and retraining of teachers in both technical and general fields in the area of ​​quality education according to the UNESCO principles to which Mali and Burkina Faso have adhered to.

HOPE’87 and HOPE’87-Burkina Faso promote basic education that meets the essential criteria of contemporary knowledge transfer in order to build the foundation for adequately facing socio-economic adversities. In the face of repeated phases of crisis, it has been shown time and again in Burkina Faso and Mali that the ability to fall back on solid core competencies has proven its worth. Schooling for children, but also specialised schooling and vocational training, as well as training and further training of special skills for young people, represent a major focus here. In this context, HOPE’87 and HOPE’87-Burkina Faso attach particular importance to enforcing access to project facilities for girls and boys as well as for disabled and disadvantaged young people in equal measure, in order to counteract structural disadvantages already in childhood and adolescence and to broaden the scope of action.

The project not only trained key national education officials in both countries and produced an advocacy paper for inclusive and quality education, but also increased the inclusive capacity of the school infrastructure in the Koloko and Finkolo communities. Specifically, the implementation of the project made it possible i) to build and renovate essential infrastructure (latrines and access ramps for the disabled) for the proper functioning of schools, colleges and high schools, ii) to equip the classrooms of ten classes, training centres and education partners with computers, iii) to organise national workshops in Burkina Faso (Koloko) and Mali (Finkolo and Sikasso) with a view to strengthening the knowledge in the use of digital technologies of teachers and education partners, iv) to organise a sub-regional workshop (Burkina Faso and Mali) which took place in Orodara in Burkina Faso and finally to implement an awareness and information programme on HIV AIDS for the benefit of pupils in the two countries.

The results achieved by this project were well above the expectations of education stakeholders in both countries. After conclusion of the project, all actors are now committed to implementing the recommendations of the workshops in order to improve the quality of education in the two countries and make it inclusive by acquiring the necessary equipment and taking into account the needs of disadvantaged groups. Overall, more than 1,000 children and almost 100 pedagogues were reached by the project!