Solidar Suisse strengthens the skills of facilitators at Literacy Centers/Intensive Training of 9-15 year-olds for Development (AFI-D)
As part of the implementation of the 2021-2022 literacy campaign, the Fonds National pour l’Alphabétisation et l’Education Non Formelle (FONAENF) has financed 51 literacy operators to open 135 centers for Literacy/Intensive Training of 9-15 year-olds for Development (AFI-D), an alternative bilingual education approach promoted by Solidar Suisse.
In order to guarantee the quality of learning, Solidar Suisse, in partnership with the Association Manegdbzanga and the Union provinciale des Associations pour la Promotion de l’Alphabétisation du Houet (UPAPA), structures operating the AFID approach, is organizing a training session for AFID facilitators from November 07 to 22, 2022, on pedagogical approaches to teaching-learning content in AFI-D centers.
This course is held simultaneously at two locations:
- At the Manegdbzanga Association training center in Nomgana (Loumbila) for moorephone animators;
- and at the Centre de l’Union provinciale des Associations pour la Promotion de l’Alphabétisation du Houet (UPAPA) in Bobo-Dioulasso for the julaphones and dagaraphones animators.
A total of 135 facilitators are taking part in the training. According to Brahima TAPSOBA, AFID facilitator in the village of Gademtenga, this training comes at just the right time. “It’s an opportunity for us to strengthen our skills in pedagogical approaches to facilitate the learning of AFID learners”.
AFID is an alternative bilingual education approach promoted by Solidar Suisse since 1994 to address the lack of suitable educational provision for out-of-school or out-of-school young people aged 09 to 15, who are exposed to idleness and/or delinquency due to their circumstances. This approach is implemented through a 4-year school curriculum, ending with learners taking the primary school certificate (CEP) exam. In addition to literacy activities, learners are introduced to agricultural and cultural production activities. The aim is to prepare them for professionalization, and to help them make the most of their culture to contribute to the development of their localities.
AFI-D is a non-formal education program for teenagers, recognized and validated by the Direction de la recherche en éducation et de l’innovation pédagogique (DGREIP). Operators who implement AFI-D receive support from the Fonds pour l’Alphabétisation et l’Education Non Formelle (FONAENF). To do so, they must sign a memorandum of understanding with Solidar Suisse, the promoter structure, whose role is to ensure the training of facilitators, and the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the approach. “This training responds to the need for capacity building among facilitators, in order to perpetuate the gains made and the confidence placed in the AFID approach,” confided Mr. Yamba Louis NIKIEMA, Education Technical Advisor at Solidar Suisse Burkina Faso.
