2017-2026

BUILDING A LIFE OF LEARNING

2017-2026

IECD

For over 30 years, the European Institute for Cooperation and Development (Institut Européen de Coopération et de Développement - IECD) has put education, vocational training and entrepreneurship at the core of its mission with the aim of strengthening people’s skills and capacities to build a better future. Partnering with local institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Basin and Southeast Asia, IECD works to create environments where everyone can express their talents. We have been supporting IECD in Madagascar since 2017 and in Lebanon since 2020, focusing mainly on rural youth access to secondary and tertiary education.

www.iecd.org

CHALLENGE

Education levels in Madagascar are among the lowest in the world. Only 1 in 3 children complete primary education and 26% of children under 15 are illiterate. Madagascar’s high school dropout rates are due to poverty, pupils’ distance from schools, a shortage of teachers and their lack of training.

ACTION

CERES PROGRAMME: ACADEMIC SUPPORT CENTRES FOR SECONDARY STUDENTS

IECD and the Malagasy non-profit organisation PROMES are working with teachers, school administrators, communities and families to improve access to quality secondary education for young people in the rural communities of Fianarantsoa.

Since 2006, five academic support centres have provided boarding school options, remedial learning support and extracurricular activities. These centres provide pupils with a supportive educational environment during upper secondary school and throughout their higher education. This helps them foster a strong academic and emotional foundation on which to build a life of learning.

IECD and PROMES also train teachers in the surrounding 9 secondary schools to improve the quality of education, bring parents together to better involve them in the education of their children and provide daily meals during the lean season.

SESAME PROGRAMME: HIGHER EDUCATION AND ACCESS TO EMPLOYMENT

IECD and PROMES are also working to provide tailored academic support for motivated baccalaureate holders from underserved backgrounds. The students are selected from partner schools throughout the country each year and welcomed to the SESAME campus in Antananarivo to follow a post-Bac preparatory year that includes educational support (personal development, educational activities and civic involvement), academic reinforcement (inverted teaching or flipped learning) and work on career guidance and integration by building a life project. After 10 months, the students enter the Malagasy higher education establishments of their choice. Hostel accommodation and e-payment of university tuition fees are provided until the students obtain their bachelor’s degree and enter the world of work.

IMPACT

IECD academic support centres have been enabling students to thrive since 2006. Student success in secondary school exams and the Baccalaureate has increased steadily since then.

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