Dakar, October 30 – Senegal is on track to address its shortage of science teachers, according to the Secretary General of the Ministry of National Education, Papa Malick Ndao. He indicated that this priority issue is already being actively addressed by the ministry.

"We can say today that the catch-up process has begun, and we plan to definitively eliminate the shortage of science teachers in the days and years to come," said Mr. Ndao.

These remarks were made during the official opening of the international seminar for the presentation of projects funded by the "Apprendre" program, implemented with the support of the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF), a meeting which recently took place in Dakar.

The Secretary General recalled the "strong decisions" taken during the Interministerial Council meeting of October 3rd, aimed at "addressing the teacher shortage across all disciplines." In this regard, "the Ministry has deployed a significant cohort of teachers from teacher training colleges," he specified.

Mr. Ndao also welcomed the progress made possible by the "Learning" program, which notably helped Senegal to "develop several structuring documents relating to the evolution of the inspection function and the initial training of teachers".

Launched in June 2018 in 26 French-speaking African countries, the "Apprendre" program focuses on strengthening the professional development of teachers and educational supervisors.

The ministerial official reaffirmed Senegal's commitment to maintaining its collaboration with the AUF and its partners for phase 3 of the program, which will focus on "sustainable improvement of the quality of learning".

Mr. Ndao also stressed that the choice of the AUF research theme, "Entering and remaining in the teaching profession", aimed to raise awareness among decision-makers of the importance and challenges of making the teaching profession attractive.

For her part, the AUF's regional director, Ms. Ouida Tebbaa, described the seminar as "a multi-stakeholder dialogue space, geared towards sharing experiences, questioning, collaboration, and learning." She reaffirmed the AUF's support for higher education institutions in developing and promoting educational research for the benefit of education systems.

Also speaking at the meeting, Sabina Lopez emphasized the importance of the event: "This seminar confirms our investment in what is most precious in the world: the education of our children." She concluded by praising the principle of the educational continuum, because "there is no quality higher education, nor top-level researchers, if we do not properly educate our children from preschool onwards."