In general, Africa is struggling to give effect to the Education For All (EFA) mandate and the achievement of the educational Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The EFA Global Monitoring Report 2005 (UNESCO) emphasises the centrality of teacher development to this endeavour. Not surprisingly, the African Union has prioritised teacher education in its Second Decade of Education. What is the role of distance education in the context of teacher education? Extensive and increasing use is made of distance education for teacher development globally and in Africa in particular, in pursuit of EFA goals and in response to a global shortage of teachers in general and primary level teachers in particular. 152 Commonwealth Education Partnerships 2009 Teaching the teachers Assessing the effectiveness of using distance education to train teachers in Africa Tony Mays and Jennifer Glennie This is an abbreviated version of a paper developed for the African Council on Distance Education conference in Nigeria in 2008. The paper explores the current and future potential of the use of distance education methods for teacher development in Africa. It argues that it is appropriate and desirable for distance education methods to be used in teacher development programmes but suggests that many current practices need to be questioned. The use of distance education for teacher development in the context of a developing country should not be dictated by economic arguments alone. It should also, or perhaps rather, be informed by concerns about the nature and quality of the education and training provided and how this manifests itself in improved quality of practice, and hence learning, in 21st century African classrooms. Two mature female students