Ensuring the highest possible quality of education in a changing Africa

Abstract

The Distance Education and Teachers’ Training in Africa (DETA) 2011 was hosted by the Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique, from 3 to 5 August. It was the fourth of its kind. The biennial conference was born out of the necessity to create a unique platform for all faculties of education to share knowledge and deliberate on educational issues as they affect Africa. We understand our contextual landscape as it affects education better and expanding education and improving its quality is central to the continent development. African scholars always meet at international conferences, but at the inception of the DETA conference in 2005, there were few conferences to bring these scholars together. DETA’s major objectives are to contribute to the debate on teacher training in Africa and to build capacity for the delivery of teacher training programmes in Africa. These objectives represent ways in which the conference can support NEPAD, various protocols on education and training in Africa, the Millennium Development Goals, and some of the recommendations of the All-Africa Education Ministers’ Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education.