Education Workforce and System Leadership in Africa’s Foundational Learning Agenda
The quality of foundational learning depends on the teachers who deliver it and the leadership structures that support them. The FLEX2024 Declaration for Action established five commitments that inform the framing of this sub-theme: strengthening cross-country collaboration, scaling evidence-based approaches, improving data systems, prioritizing evidence-based spending, and enhancing partner coordination. These require robust system leadership and a well-supported education workforce to execute them.
Despite progress, many African children still do not attain basic proficiency in literacy and numeracy. Teachers often receive training, but it is rarely high-quality. What is needed is practical, targeted, skills-based training in foundational learning, with follow-up support focused on improving instruction rather than on compliance. System leadership and workforce capacity are foundational to foundational learning. Strong leadership ensures evidence-based pedagogies, such as structured pedagogy, targeted instruction (including Teaching at the Right Level), and play-based learning, are implemented effectively. This sub-theme takes a lifecycle approach encompassing pre-service training, continuous professional development, appraisal, career development, motivation, and retention. Ed-Tech and AI, gender, equity, and gender are cross-cutting themes that should be considered in submissions under this sub-theme.
3a. Teacher professional development:
Continuous training that equips teachers with evidence-based instructional skills, including classroom assessment, structured pedagogy, targeted instruction, and child-centered teaching, is key. Effective professional development moves beyond one-off workshops to include ongoing coaching, mentoring, peer learning, and practice-based feedback. There is strong evidence on what good TPD looks like; however, delivering it at scale is expensive. A key challenge is how to reduce costs while maintaining quality.
3b. School leadership:
The capacity of head teachers, principals, and school management committees to create enabling learning environments through instructional leadership, teacher support, and efficient resource management is an important component of school leadership. Strong school leaders translate system-level policies into school-level action, foster a culture of learning, monitor teaching quality, and ensure evidence-based pedagogies reach every classroom.
3c. Middle-tier support systems:
This focuses on provincial, district, regional, and circuit-level officials who bridge national policy and school implementation. A key piece is aligning prioritization of foundational learning throughout the system and applying a behavioral science lens: understanding the decisions middle-tier actors face and shifting their role from compliance monitoring to instructional support. This unlocks the support teachers need to improve instruction while helping the system understand what is possible. Strengthening this layer ensures reforms do not break down between ministerial headquarters and classroom practice. Feedback from middle-tier actors should be treated as actionable data to drive continuous improvements in pedagogy, resource allocation, and policy adjustment.
3d. Community and youth engagement:
Active involvement of parents, caregivers, community leaders, young people, and local organizations in supporting foundational learning both inside and outside school helps ensure alignment, collaboration, and coherence between home and school environments. This includes promoting attendance, reinforcing learning at home, holding schools accountable for quality, and mobilizing local resources. Community-managed reading and numeracy camps can provide structured out-of-school support, particularly for learners at risk of falling behind.