The Open University

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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 either under–qualified or not unqualified at all. 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 children with a high 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.

Our support has helped the Open University and its partners extend both the reach and impact of TESSA. For example, by helping to further embed TESSA materials into their partners’ teacher education programmes, by enhancing access to TESSA resources for teachers in remote areas, and by helping to extend the curriculum to include early literacy, special educational needs and materials for secondary education.

Further information

www.open.ac.uk

www.tessafrica.net