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In Africa each day more than 38 million children do not attend primary school. There is a critical shortage of teachers, and it is estimated that a third of existing primary school teachers are unqualified or under-qualified. The Teacher Education in sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) programme aims to improve access to, and the quality of, education and training opportunities for teachers and student teachers across sub-Saharan Africa, thus increasing the number of skilled teachers able to provide African children with a good quality primary education.
To achieve this, The Open University works in partnership with 18 universities and organisations across nine African countries to create multilingual Open Educational Resources, which are flexible in format and freely available to all teacher educators and teachers in the region. TESSA is currently reaching 400,000 teachers and student teachers with a 'toolkit' of practical, adaptable resources that are helping improve their classroom practice.
Fidelia Babai, who is studying at the University of Education at Winneba in Ghana, teaches at the University Practice Primary School, many of whose 1,670 pupils are deaf. Fidelia, who conducts her lessons by both speaking and signing, says: ‘As an inclusive set-up we need to work practically and effectively so that children have a skill when they leave so they can earn their own living. We use TESSA materials to help teach our students about how they can avoid HIV/AIDS.’
Freda Wolfenden, Director of TESSA, says ‘We are extremely grateful for the support of The David and Elaine Potter Foundation, which will help The Open University and its partners extend both the reach and impact of TESSA. For example, we aim to further embed TESSA materials into our partners' teacher education programmes, enhance access to TESSA resources for teachers in remote areas and extend the curriculum to include early literacy, special educational needs and materials for secondary education.’
www.open.ac.uk/africa/
www.tessafrica.net
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