Activities in Burkina Faso

The government of Burkina Faso considers human capital consolidation as one of the four major strategies for social and economic development in its current national plan, "National Plan for Economic and Social Development" (2021-2025) (PNDES-II).

For that purpose, the government of Burkina Faso established four strategies; increase of access, quality enhancement, development of non-formal education, improvement of management in education sector, in the current sector development plan, "Strategic Development Plan for Basic and Secondary Education" (PSDEBS 2021-2025).

Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) regards the promotion of basic education as cornerstone for development of fair and equitable society. JICA envisage to helping Burkina Faso's efforts to achieve universal access of quality basic education by construction of post-primary education facilities, improving teachers' capacity and strengthening community and school relationship.

I. The objectives of the Support Program for Basic Education Students and Teachers:

JICA's Education Sector Interventions aims to:
- Improve the learning environment,
- Improve the quality of teaching/learning,
- Promote participatory management of schools by communities.

II. Means of intervention

In the education sector, JICA works mainly through the following means:
- Technical cooperation through the implementation of projects with the support of Japanese experts and the knowledge co-creation program,
- Non-refundable grants for the construction of educational infrastructure and the purchase of equipment for both teachers and students,
- Concessional loans through budget support.

III. The current components of the program (main ongoing projects)

The current program includes two technical cooperation projects and one non-refundable grant project.

Technical cooperation

-The Project for Improving the Quality of Education through the Strengthening of School-Community Collaboration (PAQER-CEC 2020-2024)

This project, a successor of precedent project, "Support Project for School Management Committees (PACOGES)," has the overall goal of promoting quality education through strengthening school-community collaboration.

The PAQER-CEC, launched on March 09, 2021, aims to promote School Management Committees' (COGES) activity in order to improve school and students' performance; the project has the following specific objectives:

• To strengthen and validate the functional COGES model with a view to its generalization;
• To develop and validate a sustainable mechanism for monitoring-support and sharing of experiences between the COGES with a view to generalization;
• To identify and capitalize on good practices (school canteen, girls' education, inclusive education, school environment, support the organization of pedagogical days, etc.) to achieve quality education;
• To develop, test and validate mathematics learning tools for use in and outside the classroom.

-The education adviser to the Ministry of National Education, Literacy and the Promotion of National Languages (2020-2022) :The purpose of sending an adviser (technical assistant) in educational policy is to improve the quality of education under the PSDEBS through the promotion of educational reform.

Aid Grant

- The Educational Infrastructure Construction Project through UNICEF Phase I (2021-2023)

From 2015, responding to the strong demand for post-primary schooling, JICA is committed to supporting the implementation of the educational continuum, a major reform of the MENAPLN to cope with the strong influx of students at the gates of the College of General Education (CEG).

Two phases of the project to build education infrastructure in support of post-primary education were then implemented. It completed the construction of 56 Colleges of General Education, i.e., 328 equipped classrooms and other components in the Central region, Central Plateau region, Center-West and Center-North regions.

In the year 2020, the security condition in Burkina Faso became so deteriorated that JICA was forced to give up the direct management construction in Burkina Faso.

Confronted with severely worsened security condition, JICA has made decision to continue post-primary school construction by entering a partnership with UNICEF.

The first JICA construction partnership with UNICEF, approximately 6.7 billion FCFA, was signed in February 2021, contains the construction and equipment of 18 post-primary schools in the central and central-south regions (i.e. 104 classrooms), the construction of science laboratories, sports facilities, sanitary facilities and capacity building for teachers and members of the educational community.

IV. Achievements of Japanese Cooperation in the field of education

The achievements of the past projects have been contributing considerably to improvement of the quality of education.

Technical Cooperation

- The Support Project for the In-service Training of Teachers in Science and Mathematics in Primary School (SMASE) Phase I and II (2008-2015) trained 46,900 teachers, school principals, 1,395 educational supervisors on the ASEI/PDSI approach; 863 math and science lesson sheets as well as guides for teachers have also been developed.

Teaching materials produced as part of the SMASE project




- The Support Project for School Management Committees (PACOGES) phase I and II (2009-2017) assisted the establishment of approximately 12,000 COGES at the national level and the improvement of the quality of learning through the activities organized by the COGES.

- The Project for Strengthening Teaching Strategies and Practices in Student-Teacher Training Centers (PROSPECT, 2016-2018) has elaborated teaching tools to be used in practical training in teacher training schools in order to help students comprehend the subject easily and profoundly.

Directors of pre-service and in-service training institutions of Burkina Faso in a teacher training center in Japan in September 2015




- The knowledge co-creation Program trained approximately 200 MENAPLN officers in Japan and in third countries on various themes.

Aid Grant

- The five (05) phases of the Project for the construction and equipment of classrooms in primary schools carried out over the period from 1995 to 2015 with an amount of 6.65 billion yen allowed the construction and equipment of over a thousand classrooms. In addition to that, accommodation for teachers and sanitary facilities were built.

Classrooms built as part of the project for the construction and equipment of classrooms in primary schools




- The Project for the construction of Dori ENEP (Primary School Teachers Training Institute), at a cost of 0.83 billion yen, enabled the construction of the following components: administrative block, classrooms, dormitories, refectory, infirmary, accommodation, furniture and equipment

- The Project for the construction of educational infrastructure in support of Post-Primary Phase I (2015-2020) at a cost of 1,151,000,000 yen or more than 6 billion CFA francs has completed the construction of 30 general education colleges (CEG) in the Central, Central Plateau and Central North provinces. Each infrastructure includes an educational block, administrative block, kitchen and latrine; each facility has been provided with the necessary furniture and equipment.

- The Project for the construction of educational infrastructure in support of Post-primary phase II (2017-2021) for a total amount of 1,561,000,000 yen, or approximately 8 billion CFA francs, has devoted to the construction of 26 post-primary schools in the Central and Central-West Regions. As in Phase I, each infrastructure, which is composed of an educational block, administrative block, kitchen and latrine, has been properly equipped.

Post-primary schools carried out as part of the project for the construction of educational infrastructure in support of the post-primary Phase II