Access to scientific and technological knowledge has the double objective of providing access to scientific and technological culture to all and developing the scientific and technological skills needed to support the socio-economic development of countries.
Within the remit of achieving these Education for All (EFA) objectives, many reports and expert opinions demonstrate how difficult it is to implement these teachings; these difficulties concern the organisational aspects of the teaching conditions and the systems needed to make them possible as well as issues relating to equal opportunities for children (male / female, social origin, socio-cultural environment, the integration of children with disabilities etc.) so that they access the same knowledge content. The teaching-learning processes at work in these particular areas involve designing, developing, implementing and regulating extremely ambitious education, teaching and learning policies whose success depends largely on the initial and continuing training of high quality teachers.
These requirements for quality, efficiency and equal access faced by all countries - a disaffection for scientific and technological education impacts on everyone - the forms they take are certainly different from one country to another, which is almost certainly the case for the other EFA Millennium Development Goals as well. The shortage of trained teachers, both in primary and secondary education is a particularly significant barrier for many developing countries seeking to achieve these Millennium Development Goals. Teacher training must be about more than just educational "spoon-feeding" delivered to a greater or lesser extent by the institution. It must be based on research organisations capable of creating teaching organisations, teaching tools to be implemented in order to provide each and every child with a quality education tailored to the local conditions without giving up any requirements of education and access to knowledge.
Buoyed by a wealth of international experience in teacher training and a solid network of partners, particularly in Europe and Africa, the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Technical and Vocational Education (ENSETP) and the University of Aix-Marseille through its Graduate School of Teaching and Education (ESPE) wish to take part in the activities of UNESCO and the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie in order to promote an integrated system of research, training and ongoing development of teacher training in the fields of science and technology in these countries. The project consists of bringing together research and training with a view to structuring inter-university exchanges. On the one hand, it is about contributing to the structuring of training of education management personnel, particularly in science and technology education, through the coordinated development of training within university programs (Bachelor, Masters, doctorate). Secondly, it is about strengthening research in science and technology education so that it is able to produce the knowledge which each country needs in order to change its education system, train the management required to organise, implement and regulate the training of teachers and also to structure the exchange of expertise in relation to issues of teaching, education or training. Several successful experiments have already been conducted, such as the structuring of a research masters and doctoral training in science and technology education in Tunisia.
