OU takes expertise to Africa

A ten-year project to help train thousands of teachers in Africa was unveiled by the Open University this week.

As world leaders prepare to discuss aid and debt relief for the developing world at July's G8 summit, the OU gave details of a multimillion-pound project to help African universities offer free teacher training across Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

The OU estimates that some 40 million primary school-age children in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to formal education.

The "Tessa project" - Teacher Education in sub-Saharan Africa - will see the university share its expertise in distance learning to help improve the skills of unqualified or underqualified teachers, particularly those working in poor, rural communities.

The project stems from a £2.75 million donation to the OU by the Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust. The Tessa project also has the support of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the charitable body set up at the end of Mr Mandela's term as the President of South Africa.

In its initial pilot phase, beginning this year, the project will aim to train 1,000 primary school teachers across the four countries, using both online tuition and printed materials.

The OU will also conduct academic research on different aspects of the Tessa project as it progresses. Research partners will include Fort Hare University in South Africa, the African Virtual University, the Commonwealth of Learning and the Open University of Tanzania.

Anne Roberts, senior administrator of the Tessa project for the OU, said that it would build on the work of a smaller-scale teacher-training scheme the university had run in Egypt and South Africa, the Digital Education Enhancement Project.

"The Tessa project is a big leap forward from the projects the OU has had in the past," Ms Roberts said.

"This is very much an African partnership, with African institutions delivering the training on the ground, but helped by the expertise of the OU and the UK."

Foreign, page 10