EDINBURGH, United Kingdom — A new company called Instill Education has recently created a number of programs aimed at addressing the lack of access to education in sub-Saharan Africa. The company works across a number of countries to both offer fast and affordable accreditation programs for prospective teachers and helps train existing teachers who either do not have existing teaching qualifications or who do not have access to professional development programs that ensure the quality of their teaching stays high.
Education Problems in Sub-Saharan Africa
U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 4 aims to provide quality and universal primary and secondary education everywhere by 2030. However, access to education in sub-Saharan Africa is particularly low. In fact, less than 20% of children in sub-Saharan Africa meet the minimum proficiency level set by the U.N, in either math or reading. This in turn has a significant effect on children’s ability to lift themselves out of poverty, as education is vital to achieving social mobility. In fact, a study conducted by UNESCO has concluded that an estimated 60 million people could be lifted out of poverty if every adult had just two more years of education.
One of the major reasons why there is such a dearth of access to education in sub-Saharan Africa is the lack of teachers available. An average of 5 million new teachers are needed to effectively account for the number of children of school age, and with the number of children expected to grow rapidly, the estimated number of teachers needed to provide universal access to education in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030 will likely increase to 15 million.
In addition to the shortage of teachers, another problem is that many of the existing teachers in sub-Saharan Africa do not have proper teaching qualifications, and even those that do lack access to professional development programs that allow them to improve and maintain the quality of their teaching.
Instill Education and Solutions
Founded by Alim Ladha, Instill Education seeks to develop ways to address both the shortage of teachers needed to provide universal access to education in sub-Saharan Africa, and the lack of access to training programs for existing teachers needed to ensure quality access to education in sub-Saharan Africa.
Shortage of Teachers
In January 2023, Instill Education acquired an accreditation license in South Africa to offer the second fully accredited program in South Africa that qualifies people to become new teachers. The program is offered both online and in person and can be completed in either one or two years, depending on whether the student chooses to enroll full- or part-time. Furthermore, although these qualification programs are only available in South Africa at the moment, Instill does hope to expand educational qualification programs into other sub-Saharan African countries such as Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria.
Training Existing Teachers
In addition to offering qualification programs to prospective teachers, Instill Education has made it easier for existing teachers to receive professional development on a regular basis, to ensure they are consistently maintaining and improving their teaching knowledge and skills in order to best help their students learn. They do so by offering an online program with a series of modules that teachers can complete on their own time. The program, developed with the help of academics, was launched on an existing third-party platform and through their new app called Upskill, which has the extra feature of allowing users to complete modules while offline.
After working together with the Ghanaian government and the Mastercard Foundation, Instill Education’s program has obtained 10,000 users in Ghana since its release, and an internal study suggests that teachers are retaining and applying the information they have learned in their classrooms. Moreover, since its release in April 2023, Upskill has been downloaded over 5,000 times, and recently, Instill formed partnerships with government organizations in Nigeria and Kenya to help expand the program’s presence.
Conclusion
Education remains one of the most vital mechanisms to fight global poverty. However, in order to ensure that children are able to receive proper education, schools need teachers. In sub-Saharan Africa, this is particularly true. In fact, by 2030 the number of new teachers needed to ensure universal access to education in sub-Saharan Africa is likely to be 15 million. One part of the solution to this problem will likely be Instill Education, a company making it easier for aspiring teachers to receive qualifications and for existing teachers to receive necessary professional development across sub-Saharan African countries.
Source: BORGEN Magazine
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