Regional workshop to establish education priorities for the Central African Republic, Guinea and Mali

Education representatives from the 3 countries share their thoughts following a workshop to foster a common understanding of GPE processes and to help define priority reforms.

July 06, 2023 by GPE Secretariat

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5 minutes read

A classroom in session at Kigneko School; Dabola Area, in Guinea. Credit: GPE/Adrien Boucher — A classroom in session at Kigneko School; Dabola Area, in Guinea.

Credit: GPE/Adrien Boucher

The Guinean government and GPE Secretariat organized a regional workshop in Conakry in early May 2023 with two goals in mind: to foster a common understanding of the GPE process as part of its GPE 2025 strategy in three countries—Central African Republic, Guinea and Mali—which are facing similar challenges, and to leverage the opportunity for peers to exchange views on possible priority reforms.

GPE 2025 encourages discussions at the national level within inclusive groups of education stakeholders. Together, they analyze existing country data and evidence to identify what is working well, as well as the bottlenecks to system transformation, with a view to establishing a priority reform capable of catalyzing and accelerating progress in the education sector.

Here, in their own words, are the participants’ experience in the GPE 2025 workshop.

How do the GPE processes promote inclusive dialogue among partners and alignment of their financial, technical, and operational resources with policy priorities?

"A technical committee comprising managers from the ministries that together deliver education – namely, national education, decentralization, finance, professional development – along with civil society, and technical and financial partners was set up, which enabled us to identify the priority reform. Several consultations took place between the stakeholders and within the local group, the education partners. The dialogue between education stakeholders was frank, and the priorities that emerged from the discussions at one local workshop focused on pre-service teacher training, in-service teacher training, and teacher management."

Dedeou Ousmane SIDIBE

Former Minister of National Education of Mali

How is the GPE partnership compact different from what was done before?

"The process enabled us to reach conclusions and recommendations that shift us away from the classic financial system we knew. All because civil society was part of the process [alongside] teachers’ unions and technical and financial partners, whose help we will enlist to finance the new partnership. This way of ensuring effectiveness and reaching our overall goal was new to us."

Dedeou Ousmane SIDIBE

Former Minister of National Education of Mali

"The process proposed by the GPE has a predetermined lifespan. It does impose some constraints on the national team implementing the process, but the advantage is it keeps everyone on track. Previously, it wasn’t a phased process, the diagnosis alone could take a year, and the strategy another year or two. This time, we know exactly how much time we have. With the new GPE process, we can be sure it will be inclusive. All education partners have a hand in the process. And that’s where it becomes quite different: financing is to some degree contingent on whether or not it is inclusive—in fact, on whether or not the whole sector is involved. And lastly, GPE’s focused approach really helps us be goal oriented and effective."

Julien BONGONO

Secretary General of the Ministry of Pre-university Education and Literacy, Guinea

"We have a sectoral plan with a much longer timeline, and implementation has been problematic and we have failed to reach our goals in terms of expected outcomes. With the new GPE funding model, we are identifying a change, a priority reform that we will work on to radically transform the education system in our country."

Samuel Feizounam Ouanfio

Director General of the National Research and Pedagogical Development Institute (INRAP), GPE Focal Point, Central African Republic

How has this process helped to identify a priority capable of transforming the education sector?

"This process has really helped us identify a priority reform, but at the beginning it wasn’t easy at all. When we began to work on this priority reform, we immediately said that our priority reform, for example, could be universal education and assuring quality education for all students. Right away, we saw that it would be a huge reform, one that would take the education sector several decades to implement. But it was through the process that we were actually able to narrow our focus.
As we drilled down, it became clear that the problem was a lack of quality in teaching and learning at all levels. As a result, we’re now seeing our children leaving school without any qualifications. We realized that we needed to focus on our teachers as a priority. That is how the priority reform we settled on was professionalizing our teachers while raising awareness around gender and vulnerabilities (disabilities); in short, awareness around inclusion."

Julien Bongono

Secretary General of the Ministry of Pre-university Education and Literacy, Guinea

"In the first phase, we analyzed what was working for us, which was also a form of self-assessment, an organizational diagnosis for the different education stakeholders. Then we engaged in a dialogue. Our analysis focused on four main themes: data-based evidence, policies, gender-responsive monitoring and planning, and sectoral coordination. And finally, we assessed everything related to government expenditure on education. It was through these discussions and exchanges that we are now able to define the priority reform that will transform education in Guinea. I should also point out that everyone had a chance to speak—everyone was heard."

Mariama Dalanda Bah

Program CLE, Global Affairs Canada

What would you say is GPE’s value-added to your country?

"In our system, the state spends a lot of money on the national education budget: 85% goes to staff costs. It is the funds and contributions from partners —with GPE being the largest contributor—that really help transform the system. That is why GPE is a huge value-added to our education system. We’re trying to see how we can make the collaboration an ongoing one, by ensuring that all incoming funding goes directly to the beneficiaries so we can see more results, which will in turn attract other partners and motivate GPE to scale up its funding. That’s what GPE does for us, and it’s absolutely crucial."

Julien Bongono

Secretary General of the Ministry of Pre-university Education and Literacy, Guinea

"GPE stimulated dialogue among stakeholders who wouldn’t necessarily talk to each other all the time. I mean, all the stakeholders and education policy makers had an opportunity to exchange views. We saw three ministers of education mobilized and speaking on behalf of their prime ministers. GPE coaching is also available. They didn’t just send us the documents and say do this or that. At every step there was a conversation."

Mariama Dalanda Bah

Program CLE, Global Affairs Canada

"The work we’re doing with GPE will enable us to transform the education system in the Central African Republic, with particular emphasis on boosting girls’ enrollment."

Samuel Feizounam Ouanfio

Director General of the National Research and Pedagogical Development Institute (INRAP), GPE Focal Point, Central African Republic

The three countries have forged links and kept the lines of communication open among themselves. The next steps for these countries are to finalize the identification of their priority reform, which will be delivered through a partnership compact, which all the partners, including GPE, will mobilize around to support meaningful change in the system.

With the support of GPE and its partnership approach, these countries will be assisted in their goal of providing quality education for all their children.

Focus areas: Governance, Sector planning

Regions and countries: Sub-Saharan Africa: Central African Republic, Guinea, Mali

July 07, 2023 by John Clegg

I dearly hope that medium of instruction was an issue in these deliberations. I saw no mention of it. I hope that there was at least an emerging consensus that learning through a European language depresses achievement and bilingual education (which has a good history at least in Mali) raises it.

July 17, 2023 by Serunjogi John

The trend of Education in Ghana is similar to that of Uganda where there are so many low fees paying private schools. The Universal
Primary Education (UPE) programme in Uganda has been faced with a lot of challenges there by forcing low income families to opt to private low school fees paying schools .However also this private have a challenge of funds.,they run a deficit budget

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How do the GPE processes promote inclusive dialogue among partners and alignment of their financial, technical, and operational resources with policy priorities?

How is the GPE partnership compact different from what was done before?

How has this process helped to identify a priority capable of transforming the education sector?

What would you say is GPE’s value-added to your country?

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