Teacher Quality and Education for All in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

This chapter addresses the issue of teacher quantity, quality and their interrelationships. It first sets out the scope of the ‘quantity gap’ in primary teachers in sub-Saharan Africa, from 1991 to the present and towards the EFA target date of 2015. It then assesses different measures of ‘quality’ among current primary teaching forces. It begins by looking at how countries compare in terms of the percentage of teachers that meet nationally specific criteria of a ‘qualified’ teacher and as linked to an internationally comparable benchmark of teachers’ educational attainment. The next section looks beyond minimum qualification standards to examine the educational qualifications that teachers actually based on data covering 13 South and East African countries. Among the same group of countries, it opens a discussion concerning direct measures of teachers’ knowledge of science and mathematics and academic skills. The final section then examines measures of in-service training or the continuing professional development of the current teaching force based on the results of a regional assessment study.

Citation

Smith, T.M. and Motivans, A. (2007), "Teacher Quality and Education for All in Sub-Saharan Africa", Baker, D.P. and Wiseman, A.W. (Ed.) Education for All (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 8), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 363-394. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3679(06)08013-3