BEAP

BASIC EDUCATION IN AFRICA PROGRAM (BEAP)

Over the past two decades, Education stakeholders have been increasingly asking questions about the development of basic education in Africa, within the framework of various international policy statements and agenda for action. Although the access to primary education has significantly increased in the region, a large number of children (in the region of 45 million school-aged children) are still outside the formal education system and quality education still remains a major challenge in SSA.

The Basic Education Africa Programme (BEAP) is a UNESCO supported initiative for Africa which seeks to support a holistic and comprehensive reform of basic education in response to assisting countries attain the EFA goals by 2015. Essentially, the focus of the BEAP is on access, quality, relevance and equity in an expanded basic education framework. BEAP, is the operationalisation of some of the goals of the AU Second Decade of Education, the Kigali Call for Action and the outcomes of the 2008 ADEA Biennial. It seeks to improve the democratisation of education through the expanded vision of EFA of a minimum of 9 years uninterrupted basic education of quality of nine years and which should comprise of one to two years of kindergarten (ECE) and the early years of secondary. It is anchored on a competency based curriculum to enhance learning and the acquisition of relevant knowledge, skills and values for the subsequent levels and the world of work.

UNESCO Africa work:

- To strengthen country capacity to develop and effectively implement good education policies, strong results based programs and activities and enable the country to develop realistic budgets based on the human rights approach and the country’s basic requirements;

- To foster research, quality data collection including financial data, increase knowledge and quality learning through partnership with existing national and regional institutions, such as universities, research institutions to assist in the development and training of curriculum specialists;

- To reinforce the role of the National BEAP technical Committees or education sector technical teams to interact with UNCTs in coordinating support to the education sector, engaging and aligning a broad constituency, and advancing country leadership and accountability;

- To build a critical mass of competency based curriculum developers and teachers to enhance learning.

UNESCO Africa results:

- ¨Initiation and sustenance of high-level policy dialogue with African Member States to re-examine their education systems

- ¨Launch of the BEAP programme in 5 countries and sensitisation of 10 others during the procès

- ¨Support implementation of national road maps with particular focus on national priorities, i.e. capacity building through training in curriculum design, delivery and assessment for 8 countries

- ¨In collaboration with ECOWAS, support the conduct of a knowledge-sharing workshop on revitalising TVET in the ECOWAS sub-region with a view to rationalising and strengthening the contribution of TVET to the BEAP vision

- ¨Policy Paper for the implementation of BEAP