Benin’s 2023-2024 back-to-school season gets off to a good start. Facilitators and supervisors from BARKA bilingual alternative education centers in the departments of Borgou and Alibori have been trained to ensure successful implementation of the teaching and learning program. The training took place from September 10 to 24, 2023 at the Ecole Normale d’Instituteurs in Djougou. It is part of the Programme d’Appui à l’Education et à la Formation des Enfants Exclus du système éducatif (PAEFE). The HELVETAS and Solidar Suisse consortium is implementing this Swiss cooperation program.
Helping learners to master the national language to better master French and acquire other non-linguistic skills more easily, as well as mastering cultural activities and production. This is the bilingual pedagogical approach used by the Programme d’Appui à l’Education et à la Formation des Enfants Exclus du système éducatif (PAEFE). This pedagogical approach is inspired by the Intensive Literacy Training of 9 to 15 year-olds for Development (AFI/D). Solidar Suisse developed AFI/D in partnership with Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Education, Literacy and the Promotion of National Languages (MENAPLM). And for the training of BARKA center coordinators and supervisors in Benin, Solidar Suisse’s representative in Burkina Faso is present, Julien LOMPO, in charge of the Democracy, Civil Society and Humanitarian Aid program, and Yamba Louis NIKIEMA, Education Technical Advisor, alongside the Benin authorities in charge of education and other players such as the Cercle de réflexion et d’action pour le développement de l’éducation non formelle (CRADENF), Benin resource persons and pedagogical supervisors, and PAEFE coordination.
The aim was to train 250 animators, including 39 reservists from the Barka centers in Borgou and Alibori, as well as 13 NGO supervisors, for effective and efficient implementation of the program during the 2023-2024 school year. To achieve this, the focus is on document appropriation and didactics in national languages, transcription techniques, as well as strengthening participants’ skills in pedagogy and didactics, etc. The national languages concerned include Dendi, Baatonuum, Boo, Fulfuldé and Nagot. For the record, the Programme d’Appui à l’Education et à la Formation des Enfants Exclus du système éducatif (PAEFE) has been in its third phase of implementation since August1, 2021. The challenge remains to scale up the bilingual educational alternative to cater for the large number of children and teenagers living outside the formal education system. In the meantime, consolidation of the system’s achievements in the centers of the Borgou and Alibori departments is vital. For the start of the 2023-2024 school year, the program is running in 117 centers in Borgou, Alibori and Kpari, with an estimated 5,727 learners. Prior to the training stage for Barka center facilitators and supervisors in Benin, Solidar Suisse Burkina Faso helped develop the training module and took part in the recruitment process for Barka center supervisors in the departments of Atacora and Donga, newly entered into the PAEFE program under the responsibility of the Ministry of Nursery and Primary Education (MEMP).
