Support Technology for Educators and Parents (STEP) in Madagascar

STEP works with the Ministry of National Education (MEN for its initials in French) to build the capacity of its personnel to offer high-quality training and support to Madagascar’s growing numbers of teachers and schools. Based on STEP’s successful pilot program in the provinces of Toliara, Fianarantsoa, and Tamatave, MEN is expanding the program nationally with technical assistance from EDC. Activities focus on four distinct but linked domains: (1) strengthening in-service teacher training; (2) increasing community support to primary schools; (3) strengthening local planning for teacher professional development; and (4) supporting the introduction of English as a Second Language in primary schools. STEP allows the MEN, USAID, and other partners to test and evaluate technology-based education support tools that have been proven to help improve and maintain educational quality as well as promote a well-informed democracy. EDC’s approach to capacity building is to use context-appropriate technology—interactive radio instruction (IRI), community radio programs, and digital applications—as both the catalyst for action and the mechanism to build the capacity of MEN personnel at central and decentralized levels.