IICBA Contributions to the Annual Conference of the Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities

On May 7-9, 2024, the Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities (AFTRA) held its annual conference in Lusaka, Zambia. AFTRA’s members include Ministries of Education, national teaching councils, and teacher unions, among others. AFTRA’s annual conference is probably the most important annual event on teachers and teacher policies on the continent. In addition, right after the conference, AFTRA organized its annual Roundtable which serves as an Annual General Meeting for the organization. 

The 11^th Conference and 13^th Roundtable were hosted by the Ministry of Education and the Teaching Council of Zambia. Over 400 participants attended the Conference in person with at least another 1,000 connected online. The conference was broadcast over national television and radio stations of Zambia. Participants attending in person came from 22 countries, including Ministers from Ghana, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, Morocco, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Zambia’s Vice President opened the conference. 

Plenary Presentations

On the first day of the conference, as part of the Ministerial session, IICBA was given the opportunity to share insights from the first Africa Teachers Report on girls’ education and a preview of the second report planned for October 2024. That second Africa Teacher Report will discuss teacher shortages, providing a contextualization for Africa of findings from the recently published Global Teachers Report. The report will unpack estimates of teacher shortages and based on additional data analysis for Africa, suggest policy recommendations. 

On the second day of the conference, as part of the intercontinental session, IICBA shared a few initiatives in service to teachers and school leaders. A first initiative is a new quarterly magazine entitled Educating & Skilling Africa published jointly with the African Union – the first issue features among others interviews with the winners of the African Union Continental Best Teacher Award. A second initiative is a new WhatsApp Channel for teachers by teachers to which any individual can subscribe for free. A third initiative is a new eLearning portal with free online courses for teachers and school leaders. These and other initiatives were briefly presented so that participants at the conference could benefit from them.

Consultations and Workshop

AFTRA, the African Union, and IICBA jointly organized three events at the conference: two consultations and a workshop. A first Regional Technical Consultative Meeting on assessing CESA 2016-25 was held with Ms. Sophia Ashipala, Head for Education at the African Union, as lead speaker. As we are nearing the end of the period covered by the African Union’s Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA 16-25), it is important to assess progress made under CESA and remaining challenges. The African Union is preparing a review of CESA 16-25 with the aim to inform a future strategy. The review will include analytical work as well as consultations with Ministries of Education and other stakeholders on innovations implemented over the last decade across the 12 strategic objective areas of CESA 16-25. The consultation outlined plans for the CESA review and gathered feedback for its implementation.

A second Regional Technical Consultative Meeting on a mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) strategy for teachers in Africa was also held. The meeting aimed to critically examine and validate a draft strategy on MHPSS for teachers in Africa. The objectives were to: (1) Present the key contextual issues affecting teachers’ mental health and psychosocial support, and the rationale for a regional strategy; (2) Present case studies of emerging successful interventions on MHPSS for teachers; (3) Review the existing draft strategy document for content and strategic validity, considering its relevance, feasibility, and alignment with regional needs; (4) Engage key stakeholders, including educators, policymakers, mental health experts, and teacher associations to share experiences and build consensus on how MHPSS aspects can be mainstreamed in the educator sector across Africa; and (5) Develop a road map with actionable steps towards the approval, launch, and implementation of the strategy.

The third session was a workshop on investing in school leaders in Africa. School leaders are key to motivate and coach teachers, and thereby to improve learning outcomes for students in Africa. The workshop targeted senior officials attending the AFTRA annual meeting with a focus on how to rely on evidence to inform programs and policies aiming to strengthen school leadership. It considered among others the following questions: (1) How much does school leadership matter for teachers and learners?; (2) What can we learn from surveys of school leaders?; and (3) How can we strengthen policies for school leadership including Africa-wide certification? Presentations were made by several organizations apart from IICBA, including AFTRA, Education International, the Teacher Task Force, and VVOV. Ministers of Education from Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe also shared their thoughts at the workshop.

Other roles played by IICBA included moderating another workshop organized by the Teacher Task Force on the global report on teachers recently released by the Task Force and UNESCO. 

Communiqué and Next Conference

Among outcomes from the conference, the Ministers in attendance signed a communique with a twelve-point commitment, including providing psycho-social support to address the mental and emotional well-being of teachers particularly in times of health pandemics or emergencies and disruptions, reflecting the work conducted in the regional consultation mentioned above. The 12^th AFTRA Conference and 14^th Roundtable will be held in Luanda, Angola, May 2025.