Following the training of inspectors, the Ziguinchor Education and Training Inspectorate (IEF) initiated the dissemination of the revised teaching guide, developed by the Ministry of Education, to public school teachers. To avoid a two-tiered system within the Ziguinchor educational district, education stakeholders decided to prioritize equal opportunities for all preschool teachers, aiming to improve the quality of early childhood education.

This teacher training for the appropriation of the revised preschool guide is a kind of continuation of the policy of the Ministry of National Education at the local level, to move towards an improvement of teaching and learning and to do so in equity, according to Mouhamadou Mahfousse Diallo, coordinator of SenFiches of Ziguinchor, bearer of this initiative with the support of various education and early childhood structures in the region, including the education and training inspectorate.

"For the past few years, the Ministry of National Education has been updating the teaching guide. Ziguinchor was practically the last region to be included, because it must be acknowledged that each year, through the national program, there were always two or three academies that were included. Education inspectors were trained, but teachers were not able to benefit from the dissemination of this training. This year, the education and training inspectorate wanted to train all teachers. But due to a lack of resources, it was only able to train public school teachers," explained the coordinator of SenFiches.

The quota increases from 100 teachers to 240

One hundred teachers were initially targeted for this application. However, as demand proved stronger, the number was revised to 240, according to the SenFiches coordinator. "With this in mind, we decided it was necessary to initiate and create momentum so that teachers in the private and community sectors could be trained. It is within this framework that we launched this series of training sessions, which will take place in three modules. It must be acknowledged that at the very beginning, the objective was to train 100 teachers in a single module. We ended up with three cohorts of 80 teachers each, making a total of 240 teachers," Mr. Diallo explained.

These teachers are called upon to disseminate this training within the framework of the educational animation cells, in order to share with their peers who do not yet have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the ministry's updated guide to be up to date.

Olga Bassène, a member of the CODEC (Committee for Educational Development) at the French Institute in Ziguinchor, praised SenFiches' initiative, which successfully mobilized these teachers through a participatory approach. "It's very satisfying to see that everyone is on track to receive training. Public schools have already benefited from this training. It was time for private and community schools to benefit as well, because we all follow the same curriculum. We can't operate at two different speeds. Therefore, everyone should be working with the same program," she stated. According to Ms. Bassène, this will help them in the mentoring activities carried out by the CODEC.