As part of the celebration of the Day of the African Child, Christine Jaulmes, the representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Madagascar spoke on the importance of investment in education . Teacher training is among the points put forward by the representative of this UN organization.
The African Union (AU) declared 2024 as the Year of Education and chose “Education for all children in Africa: the time has come” as the theme of the Day of the African Child, celebrated every 16 June. This priority given to education is in line with Agenda 2063, with the ambitious plan to transform Africa into a powerhouse through targeted investments in education, technology and entrepreneurship. In Madagascar, many challenges still remain to be faced for the future of Malagasy girls and boys, according to Christine Jaulmes, UNICEF representative in Madagascar. Among them, teacher training, a critical resource which conditions the quality of an education system. “Madagascar is faced with a qualitative and quantitative shortage of teachers which results in significant disparities in class sizes and learning conditions. There is an urgent need to invest in training enough qualified teachers. Indeed, if the recruitment of community teachers or Fram has made it possible to compensate for the lack of teachers thanks to the growing needs of the population, we observe that the vast majority of primary school teachers do not have a teaching diploma, which has a negative impact the quality of teaching,” she said.
Challenges. In September 2022, United Nations Member States, including Madagascar, committed to action to respond to the global education crisis during the Education Transformation Summit. With this proclamation of the Year of Education by the African Union, there is a real commitment from African leaders to prioritize this agenda across the continent. “ Madagascar has identified human capital as a priority of the new General Policy of the State. This emphasis on human capital is an opportunity to carry out a profound reform of the education system and make significant investments in the training and recruitment of qualified teaching staff., continues Christine Jaulmes. In addition to teacher training, access and quality challenges are also among the points she highlighted so that Madagascar can respond to its commitment to targeted investment in education.
Narindra Rakotobe
