Kigali, Rwanda – Wednesday, 30 March 2022—In close partnership with the Government of Rwanda, the Mastercard Foundation and the Belgian Government, VVOB – education for development is initiating the African Centre for School Leadership (ACSL), an initiative by and for African and African-based partners.
The Centre, a multistakeholder initiative, is currently in its foundation phase and will be hosted by the Government of Rwanda, a key strategic partner. The ACSL is set to support African governments to build a supportive school leadership system with the objective of improving teaching practices and, in turn, learning outcomes.
The Centre will focus on promoting effective leadership at various levels in education systems on the continent. Drawing from evidence on the effects of school leadership, supportive educational leadership at policy level will enable effective and scalable professional development of school leaders, resulting in more effective school leadership . Effective school leadership, in turn, will support effective school-based teacher mentorship and support, resulting in improved quality of teaching, learning and learning outcomes.
“The aim of this Centre is to support governments in Africa to promote effective school leadership, and improve quality of teaching and learning outcomes. We need to have a Centre that provides support on continuous professional development of school leaders who will join the leadership in different schools,” says Dr Valentine Uwamariya, Rwanda Minister of Education.
In the run-up to the establishment of the Centre, a review of empirical evidence on school leadership in Africa took place. This review on school leadership in Africa offers insights in what constitutes effective school leadership on the continent, based on empirical evidence. The review considers the key competencies and practices that are associated with effective school leadership, the key features of effective and scalable continuous professional development (CPD) for school leaders as well as on how local, national and regional policies promote or inhibit school leaders’ leadership practices in Africa.
The empirical evidence review on school leadership in Africa can be found here.
In a next step, a representative panel of policy makers, CPD providers, experts and development partners were brought together on the African continent from 30th to 31st March 2022, to discuss this empirical research and to build a consensus on what constitutes effective school leadership on the continent. It was also an opportunity to share the Rwandan experience in promoting effective school leadership.
“The biggest challenge in ensuring effective school leadership relates to the preparation and selection of school heads and principals. For schools to be well led and managed, principals require specialist preparation as instructional leaders. Selection of principals should be based on professional suitability, not administrative or political criteria” said Dr Tony Bush, Professor of Educational Leadership at University of Nottingham (United Kingdom).
“The quality of leadership in schools has a direct impact on the quality of basic education that children receive in any country. Therefore, it is imperative that school leaders have access to continuous professional development (CPD) to enable them to effect positive change. However, in many African countries, there are lack of structures to enable provision of such support to school leaders,” said Pauline Essah, Director of Research and Insight at Education Sub-Sahara Africa.
“The African Centre for School Leadership (ACSL), to be hosted in Rwanda, will be well-placed to contribute to bridging this gap. This is due to ACSL’s intent to support African governments to establish and scale up evidence-based education leadership systems that will be tailored to local needs, particularly with respect to strengthening the capacity of local CPD providers who train and support school leaders. This approach of co-developing solutions to challenges identified should help to improve and sustain the quality of education and learning outcomes for children in participating African countries, for the benefit of Africa and the world,” she added.
About VVOB
VVOB – education for development is an international non-profit organisation with 40 years of experience in quality education. Through capacity development, VVOB provides support to ministries of education in Africa, Asia and South America to improve (initial) professional development of teachers and school leaders in early childhood, primary, general secondary, and technical and vocational education.
For more information on VVOB, please visit: www.vvob.org
About the Mastercard Foundation
The Mastercard Foundation works with visionary organizations to enable young people in Africa and in Indigenous communities in Canada to access dignified and fulfilling work. It is one of the largest, private foundations in the world with a mission to advance learning and promote financial inclusion to create an inclusive and equitable world. The Foundation was created by Mastercard in 2006 as an independent organization with its own Board of Directors and management. For more information on the Foundation, please visit: www.mastercardfdn.org
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