Co-led by the AUF and the International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIF), the Francophone initiative for long-distance teacher training (IFADEM) is contributing to international efforts to achieve high-quality primary education for all. The initiative helps states to define continuous training strategies for primary school teachers in order to improve their skills for teaching (in) French. In cooperation with the ministers of Education of the countries concerned, IFADEM devises and organises a partly long-distance training scheme adapted to the needs of these countries’ education systems, using information and communication technologies.
Benin, Burundi, Haiti and Madagascar were the four countries involved in the pilot phase conducted between 2008 and 2010. In Benin and Burundi, the initiative was completed with the certification of more than 1100 primary school teachers. Following a favourable assessment in 2010, it received the renewed support of the Francophonie member states and governments during the Montreux Summit.
In 2011, a trial was carried out in Haiti, where more than 400 primary school teachers started their training course, while the training of 500 teachers from the Ambositra region of Madagascar commenced in 2012. In five provinces in Benin, 4000 primary school teachers began their training, and in five provinces of Burundi 1800 teachers started on the training programmes. In July 2011, the Democratic Republic of Congo joined the four countries signing a partnership agreement concerning the training of 600 primary school teachers from the Katanga Province.
Since the initiative’s launch in 2008, IFADEM has created nine digital sites, each containing around twenty computers connected to the Internet: six in Burundi, two in Haiti and one in Benin. Eight new sites are currently being set up: five in Benin, two in the Democratic Republic of Congo and one in Madagascar.
In 2011, the initiative received 27,000 books for its teaching supplies: dictionaries, grammar books and training booklets for primary school teachers; lists of references for the designers of training booklets; and works for the libraries set up in the digital sites.
IFADEM’s technical and financial partners, the French Development Agency (AFD), the Quebec Ministry of International Relations and Wallonia-Brussels International (WBI), allocated a total of 8.5 million Euros in 2011 to finance the expansion in Benin and Burundi (2011 – 2013), the experiment in Katanga (2011 – 2013) and the aid required to coordinate and internationalise the project.
In 2012 – 2013, IFADEM will welcome new countries, including Niger and Lebanon.
