JICA’s Support to Education in Africa in the Last Two Decades: Focusing on Mathematics and Science Education

The objectives of this study are to identify achievements and challenges by analyzing the past technical cooperation projects implemented in Africa with the support of JICA in a cross-national manner, and to present possible measures to address some of the challenges identified above. The analyses for this study are based on mainly 28 terminal evaluation reports of JICA’s mathematics and science technical cooperation projects in Africa. Through the comprehensive analysis, the following three achievements were identified: (1) INSET systems have been established; (2) Lesson delivery has improved; and (3) Students’ participation in lesson improved. On the other hand, the following quantitative and qualitative issues were revealed: (1) Teaching methods learned at INSET are not implemented in the classroom as expected; and (2) Although changes in lesson delivery are observed, many of such changes do not necessarily lead to enhancing students’ thinking process. Through the analysis of these issues, the paper proposes the possible measures to address the challenges.