Inter-Country Quality Node on Teaching and Learning (ICQN-TL)

Background

The African Union (AU) “Strategic Policy Framework” approved and adopted by Heads of State of the African Union at the 2013 Summit in Addis Ababa stresses that the promotion of critical skills needed for accelerated sustainable development in Africa can be achieved through establishing strategic partnerships among African countries for the exchange and sharing of knowledge and experiences. Keeping with this approach, ADEA has facilitated the creation of Inter-Country Quality Nodes (ICQNs), to build capacity in Africa through the sharing of knowledge and innovative educational experiences among peers. One of these is the ICQN on Teaching and Learning and Network of African Learning Assessment.

The Inter-Country Quality Node on Teaching and Learning (ICQN-TL) is an intergovernmental forum for policy dialogue and collaborative action among African Ministers of Education and strategic partners for advancing quality teaching and learning in their countries and in Africa. The collaborative approach and networking will support the exchange of knowledge on concepts, research findings and capacity building to respond to the varying contexts in which teaching and learning programs are implemented.

The Government of Rwanda has expressed interest and commitment to champion and lead ICQN-TL. It should be noted that Rwanda has been selected among the Fifteen Learning Champions to convene stakeholders, diagnose the quality of assessment systems and assess the necessary technical and financial resources required to improve learning measurement and outcomes.

The ICQN-TL was officially launched on 18th February 2016, and is hosted by the Ministry of Education of Rwanda. It is an intergovernmental platform for policy dialogue and collaborative action among African Ministers of Education and strategic partners for advancing quality improvement in teaching and learning in Africa. This collaborative approach relies on a network of African institutions and experts for exchange of knowledge on concepts, lessons learned from research findings and capacity building to respond supportively to the varying contexts in which innovative teaching and learning programs are implemented.

Added value

The ICQN-TL and the Network of African Learning Assessments (NALA) seek to bring together representatives of Education Ministries, from different countries, and education experts in dialogue, collective problem-solving and learning on challenges of common interest. The ICQN-TL and NALA would thus serve as a catalyst for knowledge creation, the accumulation of information on innovative educational experiences and for implementation of lessons that each country or group of countries draws from those experiences to improve their own education policies and practices. The two entities would also benefit greatly from the institutional knowledge already generated by their precursor, the ADEA Working Group on Teaching Profession.

Objectives

The overall objective of the ICQN-TL & NALA is to support Ministers of Education to take the lead in developing and implementing policies and strategies for effective teaching and learning in Africa. The ICQN-TL will focus on teachers' professional development and other areas of learning related to the continuum of education (curriculum, teaching and learning materials and measurement of learning outcomes).

Specific objectives will include the following:

• Addressing the issue of teacher quality
• Promoting the integration of ICT into teaching and learning
• Promoting appropriate learner assessment approaches to ensure quality learning and teaching
• Accumulating information on innovative educational experiences in Africa and working with a group of countries in the region to apply these experiences to their national contexts.

Achievements

Key publications

ADEA and NORAD Official launch of the storybook translation initiative and of pathfinding piloting. The case of Rwanda, March 2021 See the launch event on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXiESQuYSL0

Work perspectives

The ICQN-TL work perspectives and ongoing projects or activities in 2021/2022 are summarized below:

Next steps:

• Undertake a similar comparative study in 3 Francophone Countries (Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Mali) and 1 Lusophone , Angola)
• Development of a new ICQN-TL costed Strategic Framework

BLM Section:

• Support the Storybook Translation Campaign for Early Grades Reading by supporting ADEA secretariat and translators to have titles translated and proofread based on previous experiences for Rwanda and Kenya
• Disseminate the Continental Framework on National Book and Reading Policies; the tool kit and attendant information to all Book Industry stakeholders and Partners
• Situational Analysis of book and publishing sector for policy development purpose in six member countries; Stakeholder analysis of people in book industry in six member countries in focus.

Member countries

Host institution

Ministry of Education, Rwanda

Contact

Sylvain Mudahinyuka Project Officer +250 788572621 s.mudahinyuka@adeanet.org