Curriculum Training for Basic Education Teachers Using a Competency-based Approach

For many years now to achieve results in terms of quality and access Senegal has drawn on the Canadian skills-based approach to reform its basic education curriculum and its vocational and technical training. The “training of basic education teachers in the skills-based approach (FEEB/APC)” project is a major step in reforming Senegal’s education system and putting the new basic education curriculum that uses the skills-based approach into widespread use in the formal and non-formal sectors. The FEEB/APC project complements the “Basic Education Curriculum Support Project” which has provided support for testing and extending the new curriculum in schools. The purpose of the FEEB/APC is to improve the quality of education of basic education teachers in all regions of Senegal by training them specifically in the skills-based approach. The project aims to train more than 35 494 formal and non-formal basic education teachers in the skills-based approach benefitting 1 895 230 students. By seeking to improve the quality of the teaching the project contributes to one of the three major objectives of the Government of Senegal’s Ten-Year Education and Training Program. The activities include the following: (1) the training of trainers and of formal and non-formal basic education teachers over a 10-day period; and (2) the implementation of a system to evaluate students’ skills based on the skills-based approach.