Achieving a quality middle school education that will equip a larger number of Senegalese citizens with basic skills necessary for increased participation in the political, economic, and social development of their country is the ambitious objective of the Project d’Appui l’Enseignement Moyen (PAEM). The CLASS project provides technical assistance, training, commodities, and logistical support in Senegal to increase the capacity of the middle school system to enroll more children and improve the quality of teaching and learning, as part of the Educational Quality Improvement Program 2 (EQUIP2). The project targets rural middle schools in the regions of Fatick, Kolda, and Tambacounda, which are marked by high levels of poverty and low rates of girls’ enrollment.

The project activities are organized in four components: Access and Participation, Decentralization and Educational Quality, Policy and Capacity, and Monitoring and Evaluation. The SITT program focuses on teacher and school director education and it is designed to be folded into the CLASS project for improving middle schools in Senegal as a seamless, integrated component. The overall strategy for improving quality is tied to refining and implementing teacher and school director education policies. The dialogue around revising or reforming the curriculum for middle schools under the CLASS project is carefully coordinated with the policy dialogue around designing an effective system of teacher and principal education. Any reforms to the curriculum are reinforced by how teachers are trained to teach.