Improving education quality in Madagascar

Madagascar saw an improvement in its education system during the first decade of 2000: the number of children in school rose from 2 to 4.3 million, there was a 25% increase in the number of establishments, and the primary completion rate gained 7 points to reach 60%.

The situation has, unfortunately, suffered from the institutional crisis of 2009. 80% of primary teachers are currently recruited and paid by parents. Parental charges are heavy and are one of the causes of the high school dropout rate. In rural areas, this situation is exacerbated by the massive recruitment of untrained community teachers to fill the vacant positions (estimated at 75,000 in 2014). The lack of well-trained teachers, combined with the lack of teaching materials, makes it particularly difficult to fulfil the mission of providing quality teaching to students in overcrowded classes.

With the Education Quality Improvement Project (AQUEM) launched in 2012, AFD is supporting the Interim Education Plan launched by the Government of Madagascar. This project has three objectives:

• Enhance the quality of primary education by improving teacher training and supervision;
• Improve the quality of science education, specifically for secondary education;
• Build capacities for the planning, coordination and management of human resources in the education system.

• In-service training for 5,000 head teachers in pedagogical supervision and school management, 10,000 teachers for the teaching of French, 500 trainers and 2,000 local pedagogical supervisors;
• Equipment of 220 schools with scientific resources;
• Equipment of 47 schools with experimental scientific equipment;
• Improvement in the management of human and financial resources and coordination of the education system.