Strengthening the Resilience of the Education System in Mali through support to ICT in education.

Detailed description of project Back

Mali has been experiencing a political and security crisis for several years, which has had a major impact on the education sector throughout the country, causing thousands of schools to close due to insecurity. In 2020, the global Covid-19 pandemic was the last blow to an already weakened sector; given the situation, the Malian government has decided to close all schools in the national territory.

The closure of schools and the paralysis of the education system can have disastrous consequences such as:

• Dropping out of school;
• The surge in early marriage for girls;
• Economic exploitation and forced child labour;
• Loss of motivation and psychological well-being of both students and parents;
• The increase in rural migration and emigration;
• The risk of recruitment of young people who are out of school or out of school by terrorist movements.

These two crises in Mali have accelerated the need to develop distance learning and self-education opportunities through the use of digital tools so that, despite the closure of schools, students and teachers still have access to educational resources to continue their education. The UNICEF project is part of this effort to ensure long-term access to education for all and also to provide classroom support through digital tools.

The main objective of this project is to support the identification and development of appropriate digital resources and the implementation of a Learning Management System (LMS) in Mali. Another goal is to improve the quality of education and peace education by providing tablets and training teachers in Gao, Timbuktu and Mopti.

The work will help the Ministry of Education to identify the most appropriate platform for the LMS and to strengthen the leadership capacity of the Ministry of Education.

Type of services provided

• Identify resources that are consistent with teacher training and curricula;
• Create and produce complementary digital peace education resources that meet international standards;
• Train 240 teachers in the regions of Mopti, Gao and Timbuktu to use digital tools;
• Strengthen the capacity of the technical team of the Ministry of Education to use and update the platform;
• Raise awareness on the digital education and communicate the activities for parents, teachers, the community and students.

Main staff provided:

• Team leader – Digital Education Expert (90 w/d);
• Local Expert in Education (198 w/d);
• Local Expert in Informatics (99 w/d).