African Centre for School Leadership
The African Centre for School Leadership (ACSL) is a collaborative initiative working with governments to establish and strengthen school leadership systems that enhance teaching, learning outcomes, and student well-being. Through strategic partnerships, ACSL promotes leadership at various educational levels across Africa, with a primary focus on schools and school leaders.
The ACSL is a coalition of partners in Africa coordinated by four partners, each playing a convening and coordinating role towards other regional and in-country partners. These are, the Association for Development of Education in Africa, Education Sub Saharan Africa (ESSA), Forum for African Women Educationalists and VVOB – education for development.
The general objective of the Centre is to partner and collaborate with governments, government agencies and other partners in Africa on the promotion of effective school leadership. The Centre uses the best expertise available in the region to ensure the delivery of high-quality professional development services, research, and policy advice.
The specific objectives of the Centre are to partner with educational policy makers and school leaders’ professional development providers on the following focus areas:
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Policy: development or re-development of effective school leadership policies and guidelines
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Practice: development and delivery of professional development programmes for school leaders
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Research: research on the effectiveness and impact of school leadership and school leadership professional development
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Knowledge mobilisation, advocacy, communication and sector coordination: mobilisation and dissemination of evidence, insights, learning; advocacy on school leadership; coordination of partners and stakeholders involved in promoting school leadership.
ESSA's role
ESSA organises and coordinates regional research activities on school leadership in Africa, partnering with educational institutions, universities, policymakers and individual researchers to achieve its objectives. ESSA is also the ACSL lead for Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning activities.
Publications
Latest News
Blogs
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From evidence to action: Reflections from Tanzania’s school leadership engagement Week
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Effective School Leadership is Central to Africa’s Education Transformation Agenda
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From Nairobi with Purpose: Reflections on the 1st KEMI International Conference
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From Instructional Leadership to Leadership in Teaching: Why Africa Must Reframe the Conversation
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Strengthening School Leadership in Uganda: From Policy to Practice
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How to Design a Community of Learning That Lasts: Lessons from an African Expert
Publications
Webinar
Pre-application information webinar on the call for applications for the second cohort of the ACSL school leadership research grants. Register here to join the webinar.
Partners
ADEA is the leading platform for policy dialogue on education in Africa. ADEA supports education stakeholders across the continent to strengthen education policy and guidelines and coordinates communication, convenings and advocacy on effective school leadership. ADEA collaborates with national government partners and other relevant continental and regional bodies.
FAWE is a membership-based pan-African Non-Governmental Organisation that operates through 34 National Chapters in sub-Saharan Africa to promote girls’ and women’s education. FAWE’s vision, mission and goal are all resolute on the well-being of girls’ education. Within the African Centre for School Leadership, FAWE is responsible for coordinating gender and school leadership activities and processes.
VVOB – education for development is an international non-profit organisation with over 40 years of experience in strengthening the quality of education systems in Africa, Asia, and South America. VVOB convenes, and coordinates African Centre for School Leadership activities related to professional development for school leaders.
The Mastercard Foundation is one of the world’s leading foundations in the higher education space, with a strong presence in Africa, especially in capacity building and scholarships.
They currently support our work on the African Centre for School Leadership
The Mastercard Foundation was also a natural partner for ESSA on the "Demographics of Faculty" project, providing funding for the Ghana pilot as well as other support and insights.