DEPARTMENT FOR HUMAN RESSOURCES SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ONTINENTAL STRATEGY OF EDUCATION 2015-2025 ,22-26 June 2015

PRESS RELEASE

On 22nd June 2015, Commissioner for Human Resources Science and Technology, HE. Dr. Martial de Paul Ikounga opened the workshop for developing the Education Strategy for Africa 2016-2025. This follows on from the Plan of Action for the Second Decade of Education for Africa, which comes to an end this year 2015. The new Strategy takes advantage of the global discussions on post 2015 development and takes Agenda 2063 as the over-arching vision. It also comes at a time when the status of education has received a boost at the highest political level of the African Union, whereby the June Summit established a team of Ten Heads of State and Government as Champions for Education in Africa. The workshop involves experts from Member States, RECs and partner agencies, African Union Commission and NEPAD agency.

Description: Description: C:\Users\wonge_000\Documents\Bluetooth Folder\20150622110450_IMG_3431.JPGIn his keynote presentation, the Commissioner provided the conceptual framework for the new strategy. He insisted on the need for a paradigm shift in education systems, in order to enable the empowerment of African youth including young girls with the appropriate competencies to become responsible citizens capable of problem-solving and innovation. Some of the issues that should be considered in the strategy, he said, include relevance and quality of pedagogies, teaching and learning environments and school infrastructure, responsive to a pragmatic and inclusive definition of education.

Commissioner urged the experts to freely explore options for ensuring that the new strategy will be user-friendly and most especially take into account that education is open, accessible to all girls and boys regardless of their circumstances. No one should be denied access to quality education because of factors such as poverty, gender, ethnicity, culture, religion or disability.

The new strategy will require pedagogic discipline and curriculum development and delivery mechanisms that respond to the aspirations expressed in Agenda 2063. The current workshop will produce Draft Zero of the strategy which will be circulated to member states, recs and education agencies for input, to produce draft 1. Draft 1 will be subjected to a Validation Workshop in September before presentation to the Specialised Technical Committee on Education, Science and technology in October , and finally to the January 2016 Summit of Heads of State and Government. The strategy will be the basis for designing and implementing programs at the continental, regional and national levels.