Beyond Numbers: Scaling Quality Teacher Development in Sub-Saharan Africa using ODL – Project Report

The Beyond Numbers Project, led by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in partnership with the Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities (AFTRA), aimed to expand the pool of qualified teachers in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) through open and distance learning (ODL) and digital technologies. In response to the region’s urgent need for 15 million new teachers by 2030, the project brought together four teacher regulatory authorities—the Botswana Teaching Professionals Council, the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (Nigeria), the Teachers Council of Seychelles (Seychelles), and the South African Council for Educators (South Africa)—alongside Botswana Open University and University of Abuja. Each authority developed a draft national ODL framework, curated digital literacy micro-courses, and aligned recommendations with global standards such as UNESCO’s ICT and AI competency frameworks. More than 1,500 educators and ministry staff, 66% of them women, were trained using 13 micro-courses and 5 CPD courses, tailored to local needs. The project fostered peer-led development, teacher ownership, and school-based dialogues, making CPD flexible and teacher-centred. Collaborative tools enabled educators to contribute to national frameworks, encouraging deeper engagement. Though limited in scale and duration, the pilot demonstrated the effectiveness of ODL in teacher development. It laid the foundation for harmonised regional standards and showed strong potential for scaling across Africa and other Commonwealth countries.