Beijing supports education of teachers on the continent

China's aid to the education sector in Africa is helping boost teacher training, a key component in raising skills and fast-tracking development, a UN official says.

Ann Therese Ndong-Jatta, director of the UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa, recognized China's contribution to Africa's education sector over the years in a recent interview.

"We value the initiative in teacher training in Uganda and other countries in Africa. This will revitalize the teaching profession," she says.

China donated equipment through UNESCO to three teacher-training institutions in Uganda on March 3. Figures from the Chinese embassy in the country show that 137 tutors were trained and 272 pieces of equipment were donated.

Ndong-Jatta says tutors were skilled in how to integrate technology with traditional methods of training.

China is funding an $8 million project through UNESCO aimed at narrowing the education quality gap on the continent.

The project, Enhancing Teacher Education for Bridging the Education Quality Gap in Africa, aims to accelerate progress toward the achievement of Education for All and Sustainable Development Goal 4, which is quality education.

The four-year project, which started in 2012, focuses on providing a sufficient number of qualified teachers in Africa through training programs.

Eight African countries - Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Namibia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo, Liberia, Tanzania and Uganda - are benefiting from the program.

Ndong-Jatta says that besides cooperation in primary education, China has been cooperating with Africa to boost higher education.

China helped set up the Capacity Building Institute of Teacher Education in Ethiopia, and some African countries also had student and teacher exchange programs with China.

Ndong-Jatta says a conference has been scheduled in Djibouti to discuss how to further expand cooperation with China in the area of higher education.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 03/31/2017 page21)