African Education Initiative
Improving the Quality of Basic Education for Malian Students
President Bush’s Africa Education Initiative (AEI) is a $600 million, multi-year effort to increase access to quality basic education. Through AEI, the U.S. government has targeted resources to address the urgent challenges of too many children out of school, low quality of learning, inadequate numbers of trained teachers and insufficient learning materials—all exacerbated by the impact of HIV/AIDS on the educational systems in Africa. To achieve this goal of improving basic education in Africa, by 2010, AEI will:
• Provide 550,000 scholarships for African children, mostly girls;
• Train more than 920,000 new and existing teachers and administrators; and,
• Distribute 15 million textbooks and other learning materials.
Beginning this year, AEI will include boys in the scholarship program and enhance its outreach to orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) and other marginalized populations. Woven throughout these components are efforts to strengthen and engage parents and communities and promote HIV/AIDS awareness and mitigation. Over the life of the Initiative, eighty-million African children will benefit.
The African Education Initiative in Mali
Teacher Training
USAID’s Teacher Training via Radio program (Formation Interactive des Enseignants par la Radio or FIER), implemented by the Education Development Center, aims to assist the Ministry of Education to meet an urgent need for cost effective pre-service and in-service teacher training. FIER’s main goal is to work with the Ministry to design and deliver radio programs that help teachers implement student-centered methodologies in primary school classrooms. In support of pre-service training, FIER is creating multi-media centers in four teacher training institutes. In the area of in-service teacher training, FIER works with teams of Ministry personnel to write and produce radio broadcasts used to train teachers and supervisors. These programs began airing in October 2005. Nearly 2,800 teachers have been trained and it is estimated that over 150,000 students have benefited from this program.
Ambassador Girls Scholarship Program (AGSP)
The Ambassadors Girls’ Scholarship Program promotes girls’ attendance and success in school. The program is implemented in 117 public, community, and Islamic schools in the three northern regions of Mali. AGSP is implemented by World Education and three Malian NGOs, who work in partnership with local Mothers Associations and Parents Associations, as well as the U.S. Department of State and Peace Corps. Scholarship packages include school supplies, books, lanterns and cloth to make uniforms. Scholarship recipients also receive mentoring and other forms of pedagogical support. To date, nearly 20,000 AGSP scholarships have been awarded in Mali. Recently, international singer Angelique Kidjo announced her intent to provide support to 75 Malian AGSP recipients through Grade 12.
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last updated: monday, february 25 2008