On Wednesday, Jan. 22, Yemeni Minister of Education Abdul Razzak al-Ashwal and Paul Doubleday, director of the British Council in Yemen and Oman, signed an agreement to further develop teacher skills in Yemen. The agreement will provide training for more than 11,000 primary and secondary level English teachers in Yemen, as well as support extracurricular and summer term activities. Additionally, the agreement affirms a commitment to develop programs for talented and gifted students. Yemen opened its first school for gifted students in the 2013-14 school year.
The agreement comes at a crucial time for Yemeni teacher development. More than half of Yemeni teachers lack basic teaching qualifications—of some 200,000 teachers, about 129,000 lack a bachelor’s degree. A recent report by the Brookings Institution found that Yemeni teachers were failing on five of eight key benchmarks for quality and performance.
“The ministry is doing its best to improve teacher performance via professional development programs,” said al-Ashwal. The Yemeni minister noted the efforts made by both nations to reach their goal of better teacher development. While Yemen still has a long way to go to develop teachers and improve their educational system, this agreement and its provisions are a promising start.
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Written by Alex Leedom