Project description

Title: Promotion of Basic Education
Commissioned by: Ministère des Finances et du Plan
Financier: European Development Fund (EDF)
Country: Niger
Overall term: December 2003 to December 2005

Context

The keystone of the Niger Government's strategy to reduce poverty, passed in 2002, is improving the educational system. Despite initial reforms, a gap persists between the demand for education and the education available. The 7th basic education programme, financed by the European Development Fund (EDF), includes the following recommendations to remedy the situation and close the gap:

• promotion of approaches at the village level that cover the largest possible number of beneficiaries and interested parties – for example, through the inclusion of preparatory vocational training as part of schooling
• active involvement of young school leavers in the educational initiative Mouvement des Compagnons Educateurs (MCE), for example, via extracurricular support systems
• integration of school authorities, parents’ committees, and other local groups in conducting information campaigns or similar specific tasks
• expansion of the existing management information system and improvement of monitoring and evaluation.

Objective

The objective of this project implemented by GTZ IS is to transfer to zones in Dosso and Tahoua provinces school system optimisation methods that have already proved successful. In addition, the pedagogical concept for bilingual instruction in primary schools is to be further developed.

Approach

In cooperation with the authorities responsible, GTZ IS is active in the following areas:

• adaptation and improvement of teacher training
• in-service training of teachers
• inclusion of 400 schools so that the training package is more widely applied
• development of concepts to spread the use of mother-tongue instruction.