New Investment Partnership to Open Door to Education in Africa

Over 1.2 million children in two of Africa’s poorest countries will get a better education as a result of an innovative agreement, signed today between the Department for International Development (DFID), the Governments of Rwanda and Malawi and Band Aid/The Hunter Foundation, and managed by the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative (CHDI).

The £4.7m agreement will fund four teacher training facilities and is expected to result in up to 4000 new teachers in less than ten years. In addition to smaller classes and better quality teaching for children already in education, thousands of young Africans will go to school for the first time ever.

Band Aid/The Hunter Foundation will provide up to £ 4.7m for the building and fit-out of two new Initial Teacher Training Facilities (ITTF) in each country, whilst the respective governments and DFID will fund the running costs, trainee allowances and graduate teacher salaries.

The new colleges will be located in remote rural areas, where it is difficult to attract and keep qualified teachers, and there will be a particular emphasis on increasing the number of women teachers, which is a critical factor in keeping girls in school.

Welcoming the partnership, Secretary of State for International Development, Douglas Alexander, said;

“This Government has made education a priority in our effort to reduce global poverty. Providing new and highly-skilled teachers means more children can go to school, whilst the quality of the education improves for many more. That is why this agreement is so important and I hope the partnership approach will be an example for many more projects in the future.”

Speaking at an event at DFID, President Clinton said;

“Putting qualified educators in places where they are needed most is an essential step in ensuring that our next generations have the opportunity to live successful lives. I am so pleased that the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative with the Governments of Malawi, Rwanda, and the UK are helping to improve the lives of tens of thousands of children. By investing in teacher training facilities, we are investing in the futures of Malawi and Rwanda.”

From the same event, speaking for Band Aid, Sir Bob Geldof noted;

“We are delighted to be helping make this happen.”

Sir Tom Hunter, chairman of The Hunter Foundation and Board member of CHDI added;

“This looks to us to be a great way of delivering precisely what the governments of Rwanda and Malawi see as their vision for education in their countries; alongside DFID that makes for a great partnership model that’s worth trying out, and if it works taking it to scale. It’s fantastic so many children can benefit from such an initiative.”

At present, the pupil to teacher ratio remains at an alarming 1:78 in Malawi and 1:74 in Rwanda, with school completion rates at 30% and 52% respectively, which are amongst the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa. Leading academics and development experts repeatedly identify the recruitment, training and retention of motivated and qualified teachers as one of the biggest problems to sustained improvement in schooling.

The partnership agreement will deliver a substantive increase in international efforts in meeting the educational Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
The delivery of the agreement, at no cost to the program, will be managed and augmented with further funds from the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative (CHDI) who will oversee the design, build and transfer of the new colleges to the respective governments.

As an outcome of this agreement the following will be delivered;

Malawi:
Class size reduction to a 1: 60 ratio by 2014
2400 more pupils per annum receiving a quality education
With 2400 teachers trained by 2017 over 500,000 children will have benefited from the programme

Rwanda:
Class size reduction to a 1: 49 ratio by 2010
1400 new teachers entering the system by 2012
Increased numbers of teachers for ICT, science and technology
700,000 more pupils per annum receiving a quality education by 2012

Additionally in Rwanda, DFID is investing a further £5m this year to improve health services, in line with the plans developed by the Government of Rwanda and the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative/Partners in Health over the past three years.

The Rwanda Minister of Education, Gahakwa Daphrose, said;

“This is exactly the right kind of partnership and intervention we need in Rwanda’s education sector right now. Our biggest challenge now is not quantity but quality. The training and deployment of additional teachers is a priority to ensure that we provide the right kind of foundation for our children to access secondary and higher education.”

The Deputy Minister of Education in Malawi, Olive Masanza, added;

“This collaboration will help put well-trained, motivated teachers into the rural schools that need them most. This is Malawi’s number one priority in the education sector. Having partners - both government and private sector - working effectively together to make a difference is something we hope to see more of”.

Source: Department For International Development

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