The education gap limits the possibilities of millions of children around the world, especially in some areas, such as the African continent. 

Among the various ways to address and limit this problem, one of the most effective is to invest in teachers, given that, according to data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, only 64% of primary school teachers in sub-Saharan Africa have the minimum training required for their work. 

The partnership between ProFuturo and Empieza Por Educar (which translates as: Start by Educating), which began in 2020, aims to address this problem, not only by improving the training of a large number of teachers, but also by supporting the inclusion of educational leaders in schools who can drive this systemic change.

Both ProFuturo and Empieza Por Educar work towards the goal of offering the same educational opportunities to children all over the world, regardless of where they live on the planet.

ProFuturo and Empieza Por Educar: two organisations with a common goal

A year ago, coinciding with Africa Day, ProFuturo and Empieza Por Educar announced a partnership agreement to develop a professional teachers’ development project, with the aim of training 15,000 teachers in Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania. 

The jointly designed project was successfully implemented despite the exceptional difficulties arising from the pandemic. In this regard, both partners joined forces to adapt to the new reality of lockdowns and closed classrooms (with no possibility of face-to-face training for months, in areas where connectivity is scarce or non-existent). This made it possible not only to reach the targets set, but also exceed them (with the final number of trained teachers exceeding 15,400).

The quality of the training was another basic pillar for the success of the first year of the project, as it was practical and it connected to the problems the teachers faced on a daily basis; it was very well received. In the words of Nene Bezim, teacher trainer at Teach for Nigeria, “It was really remarkable that the teachers could connect, because it related to their classroom experience.” 

A large percentage of the trained teachers (78%) stated that this training has helped them to develop new competencies as a teacher. In this regard, Oluwatade Oti, a trained teacher from Nigeria commented: “I realised that after teaching I had to measure the quality of my teaching.”

One year on, and having piloted this training project, we are celebrating the fact that we are renewing our partnership and expanding the scope of our work in 2021. During 2021, in collaboration with local partners in the Teach for All network, ProFuturo and Empieza Por Educar have set a target of training 13,627 new teachers in 6 countries: Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Zimbabwe. 

Why Africa?

Africa is a starting point for ProFuturo, the continent in which it began its activity back in 2016. In that year, our programme began to take its first steps in Angola. 

After five years of work and commitment to quality digital education, the situation has changed significantly: ProFuturo is present in 40 countries around the world (18 of which are in Africa), it has trained more than 30,000 teachers and contributed to improving the education of almost one million children in this continent.

At ProFuturo we believe in the transformational power of digital e-ducation. This is why, coinciding with Africa Day on 25 May, we held a meeting to celebrate it. 

The event brought together representatives from various organisations, including Empieza Por Educar, and focused on Africa and the progress that has been made in the field of education in recent years.