Dar es Salaam — Aicha Bah Diallo is dynamic, determined and passionate. Her passion is education. She comes from Guinea-Conakry and is currently a senior official at the United Nations education agency, Unesco, in Paris, responsible for basic education around the world. Bah Diallo is also Unescos deputy assistant director-general for education.
But before she left Conakry for Paris, Mme Bah Diallo, an educator by vocation and profession, was minister of education in her own country, from 1989 to 1996. She earned the reputation, in and outside Guinea, as an effective minister during her seven-year tenure.
allAfrica.coms Ofeibea Quist-Arcton caught up with a busy Mme Bah Diallo at the 8th African Education Ministers conference currently being held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to find out more about the secret of Guineas education success.
Please give us the example of Guinea, because everyone seems to say it worked; how?
First of all we started by preparing a policy, a national policy on education, putting the emphasis on primary education. For the preparation of that policy, what we did was to make it participatory, because the ownership of the policy is very important for its implementation later. You dont change a winning formula!
So, what we did was to involve all departments that were contributing to education, like youth, womens affairs, health, finance, the department that hires civil servants and also NGOs and teachers unions and parent/teacher associations as well as religious leaders - both Muslims and Christians.
We also involved the university people, because they have to play a role for the other levels of education. But the accent was really on primary education. Everyone felt part of it. There was a desire for success!
Then we found out that if we just focused ourselves on formal primary education, many people would be left out. So we developed innovative approaches to learning, using non-formal education and building bridges between formal and non-formal education.
And was this all under your watch as Guineas Education Minister?
Yes, it was under me at that time. And also what we did was to use the media, because if you dont get the media involved - traditional and modern, even the credit markets were being used, the churches were used, the mosques were used - if you dont really work with the media, to make sure that they will help you convey the messages of the importance of education, then you cannot get everybody involved. So to help promote the ownership of the programme by every body, the mass media did a lot.
How were you able to convince the government of President Lansana Conte, that education was as important as, say, defence? There is of course that huge disparity in Africa, isnt there, where defence budgets are massive and education budgets are minuscule?
That is why it is important to involve the whole of the population in education, because then the pressure will come from the bottom up, then you are sure they will do it. Also, having a good programme, a good plan of action is important. Once you have a good plan of action, mobilizing resources, from within the country, will become easier.
And once you get the government to recognize that education is a priority, then the donors will help. But the government has to choose education as a priority. This is what happened in Guinea. So, we truly got the funds that we needed. But so much money was coming in that I had to say "hold it, we can only absorb so much!".
From overseas?
Yes, from overseas. But let me tell you one thing, the money coming from outside is really very little. Its maximum 6% or 4-5%. All the other money is coming from within.
Its almost as if youre saying that education is a marketable product and that you have to work to make it as attractive as possible.
Absolutely. The day education is fun, I think the demand for education is going to be very high. We have to make it affordable, we have to make it a joy, so that people enjoy learning. And we have to make sure that people will enjoy continuing to learn throughout life.
What in your country is the share of the budget allocated to defence and what is the budget for education in Guinea?
As one of my colleagues once said, that question is the 'grande muette', as we say in French, 'the great unspoken secret'. You will never know the true defence budget of any country, anywhere in the world! The Ministry of Defence will never tell you. But I can tell you that the education budget in Guinea is still 25-26%.
One important decision that was taken here, at the meeting of African parliamentarians in Dar es Salaam this week, was that they committed themselves to making sure that education becomes a constitutional right for all citizens. It was important to get our parliamentarians to ensure that education is above politics. When a new regime changes often they sweep everything before them out of the way. That must change.
Continuing the example of Guinea, your country is right in the middle of a conflict zone, in the Mano River Union area, next door to Liberia and Sierra Leone and Guinea, of course, has been implicated in the continuing troubles in that region.
Fortunately, these conflicts in neighbouring countries have not really had a bad impact on education in Guinea, in that the refugees coming from these conflict areas were taken care of, both by the government and the UNHCR.
But you are an outspoken and passionate advocate for an immediate end to all conflicts in Africa
Absolutely. Why are we lagging behind in Africa? When will Africa decide to stop conflicts and stop buying arms that kill children and women and use the money for education? It is because of all these conflicts... Look at Ivory Coast today. We thought Ivory Coast was going to be a beacon for West Africa. It used to be. Now look at what is happening. Do you think that kids are going to school today? No! Everybody is just fleeing, because they are afraid of being killed. So the schools are closed.
But I hope that the conflict will be resolved. We all have to work together to end that conflict, because it would destabilize the whole of West Africa and we cannot afford to have that region destabilized. Ivory Coast is really key and we have to work towards calming that crisis.
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Another conflict zone, so to speak, is HIV/Aids and its impact on education in Africa.
Indeed. As you know, the impact of HIV/Aids on education is too hard, too high. So many teachers are dying, and those who arent dying are sick. The people who arent sick or dying have to bury the dead. The children are orphaned. So, really the whole education budget will be depleted if we do not find a way to solve that problem.
And the best way, as we dont yet have a vaccine, is that education should have a role to play in fighting HIV/Aids, preventive education. But it has to be used for formal and non-formal education. That is why literacy is so important, so that you can send the messages to the rural areas, so that the older and the younger people will know it. The sooner you introduce preventive education, the better it is.
Do you think that message has got through to African leaders?
In a way, yes, because we are always shaking the tree and saying 'look!. For instance, if you look at education, the teachers that are coming out of these teacher training colleges are fewer than the ones that are dying! Therefore, different countries in Africa have the full picture of what is happening right there in front of them. Now they know it. So I think they are aware of the fact that they have to fight it and the best way to do that is through preventive education.
