1.(U) On December 19 in Dikhil, one of Djibouti's five
Districts, Ambassador, Nairobi-based Regional Economic
Development Services Office (REDSO) Director Andrew Sisson,
and Minister of Education Abdi Ibrahim Absieh formally
inaugurated five pedagogic resource centers for Djibouti.
The centers -- one for each District -- are built and
equipped with USD 750,000 in U.S. Government funding through
the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Joining in the inaugural ceremony were Minister of Women's
Affairs, Aicha Robleh, REDSO Limited Presence Country
Director Andrew Karas, USAID Djibouti Representative Janet
Schulman, USAID staff, the Dikhil District Acting
Commissioner, representatives from the Combined Joint Task
Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) based at Camp Lemonier,
Ministry of Education officials, and community
representatives.



2. (U) In remarks at the inaugural ceremony, REDSO Director
discussed several services that can be rendered by the
resource centers. He said they captured best practices from
other African countries and should contribute to a better
understanding of education reform policy. In addition to
improving management and quality of education services, the
project will also support the education system's
decentralization effort. Ambassador, speaking next,
expressed the U.S. vision of education as an essential
building block of democracy, freedom and human rights. She
shared her expectations that school directors, teachers and
others involved in education will have the opportunity to use
the centers at their convenience and receive the necessary
training to take full advantage of their many services. She
also underlined the need to make sure the facilities are well
managed and maintained. In his turn, the Minister of
Education expressed gratitude to the American people for the
contribution of the Pedagogic Centers and his expectation of
continued U.S. support. Following up on Ambassador's
remarks, he urged school administrators to ensure efficient
management of the centers.



3. (U) For the past two and one half years, the U.S.
Government, through USAID, has closely partnered with the
Government of the Republic of Djibouti in a wide-ranging
education reform effort. Central to this effort is improved
capacity among Ministry of Education personnel to manage and
implement reform. To do so, greater access to information,
communication and material resources are needed. School
directors, teachers and others require a ready means to learn
to communicate easily with their peers and to create their
own resources to support implementation of reform in schools
and classrooms. The ultimate beneficiaries are the more than
100,000 children in primary and middle schools in Djibouti
and the country's 1,500 teachers, inspectors, school system
directors and Education Ministry staff.



4. (U) Each center has facilities for training, a library and
reading room, and a computer room with modern tools for
research, communications and materials creation. USAID is
working with the Ministry of Education to train school
inspectors, pedagogic advisors and school directors, who in
turn will train teachers at local levels. With these centers,
USAID has assured the Education Ministry that all primary
school teachers and administrators will be trained by the end
of the 2006 academic year.
RAGSDALE