“I would like to have a broader intellectual base… to continue growing, evolving, always in the education sector.”

87% of students in Sub-Saharan Africa fail to achieve proficiency levels or reading. More specifically, in Côte d’Ivoire, only 53% of adult men and 33% of adult women are able to read and write at an appropriate level. The problem is, Côte d’Ivoire is not the exception, but an example of a learning crisis across developing countries.

A growing literature suggests that instead of focussing solely on students, programs should involve teachers, who are not only the center but also the solution to the current learning crisis. Focusing on teachers' aspirations, rather than needs (Toyama, 2018) could be the key to solving the education crisis, which is even more pronounced in rural areas.

Rural teachers are more gravely affected due to scarce infrastructure and the fact that they are sparse and isolated. Innovating teacher mentoring systems as Teaching at the Right level (TaRL) struggle to scale what could be a successful tool of improving teachers self-efficiency (Bandura, 1997) and motivation, and thus increasing their capabilities to achieve some of their aspirations.

Considering the above, SEMÉ at Carnegie Mellon University hopes to design a successful (feasible and sustainable) technological tool to mentor teachers in order to support them in:

• their implementation of TaRL or other teacher professional development methods;
• and their attainment of other teaching aspirations?