African Leaders Spotlight Reform in Teacher Professional Development at CIES 2026

Behind every statistic is a classroom, and behind every classroom is a teacher who may not have received the support they need to help children learn, belong, and thrive. Across Sub-Saharan Africa, only 69 per cent of primary teachers hold the minimum required qualifications, a figure that has declined over the past decade. Addressing this reality requires coordinated investment in continuous professional development (CPD), shared standards, and regional collaboration that connects teacher education reform to improved learning outcomes, equity, and peace.

At the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) annual conference in San Francisco on 28 March 2026, the GPE KIX Africa 19 Hub convened a panel session titled "Reforming Teacher Education for a Resilient and Peaceful Africa." The session brought together 27 participants, with some connecting online despite time zone differences across Africa, to be part of the conversation. Among them, the Deputy Minister of Planning, Research and Development of Liberia and GPE KIX Focal Point, Thomas Momo Parker, joined the session virtually.  

Drawing on experiences from a continental perspective with the African Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities (AFTRA) on continental standards, to Ghana's model of structured professional development, to the Hub's own facilitation of cross-border peer learning, the session made a compelling case that teacher education reform is not just an education issue. It is a foundation for stability, inclusion, and peace.

Dr. Steve Nwokeocha, Executive Director of Academics at AFTRA, presented the African Union's Continental Teacher Competency Framework, which establishes five domains and 21 standards for teachers and seven domains and 27 standards for school leaders organized across four career stages. The framework is not merely aspirational. AFTRA is now commencing continent-wide licensure of school leaders based on these standards, enabling international mobility. Reflecting on what distinguishes the countries making the most progress, Dr. Nwokeocha was direct. He stated that the countries with the best stories have one thing in common: they have enacted laws to regulate teaching and established national teaching councils.

Hazel Konadu Sarpong, Director of Quality Assurance at the National Teaching Council of Ghana, described a transformation that has taken CPD from fragmented, one-off training events into a mandatory, credit-based system anchored in the Education Regulatory Bodies Act 2020. The rationale driving it, she explained, is that "we are seeing these teachers not just as educators, but as agents of stability, inclusion, and peace." Under Ghana’s system, teachers accrue points through professional learning communities and a designated National CPD Day, using those credits to renew their licenses. Ghana has also accredited external CPD providers and introduced a digital portal for tracking professional development.

Perhaps the most vivid evidence of what is possible came from the Hub itself. Maryann Dreas-Shaikha, Team Leader, KIX Africa 19 Hub and Yvonne Mboya, the Hub’s Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant, highlighted how peer learning and regional workshops are driving tangible reform. Following regional workshops in Zambia and Ghana in 2025, several partner countries translated lessons into action: The Gambia established its first Professional Standards Board, Lesotho partnered with the Teaching Council of Zambia to develop a Teacher Management Information System, and Malawi deployed officers to learn how to integrate CPD into teacher tracking systems. Together, these efforts illustrate the transformative power of peer-learning, turning dialogue into concrete progress toward stronger, more resilient education systems.

See a recording of the panel here.  Presentations from the panelists are available here: KIX Africa 19 Hub, Professor Steve Nwokeocha and Hazel Sarpong.