BuaNews (Tshwane)
Thapelo Sakoana
12 August 2007
Johannesburg — Education Ministers from different countries in Africa have adopted a number of strategies that will guide the implementation of education policies in various areas.
The Third Ordinary Session of the Conference of the Ministers of Education of the African Union (COMADEF), which started last Monday until Friday, endorsed the Strategy for Harmonisation of Higher Education in Africa as well as the Strategy for Quality Rating Mechanism for African Higher Education.
The statement released on Friday also highlighted that the conference adopted the strategy for technical and vocational education with special reference to countries in post-conflict situation.
A policy framework on access to post-primary education for refugees and disabled persons was also endorsed.
The conference was attended by 42 member states of the African Union (AU), specialised institutions of the AU and other international organisations.
It also endorsed the proposed strategy for developing a mechanism for establishing an African Education, Science and Technology Fund.
The conference also considered a number of presentations on progress made regarding the implementation of the Plan of Action for the Second Decade of Education for Africa.
The Second Decade of Education for Africa's Framework for Action includes improving educational quality and learning achievement; teacher education and professional development.
It also seeks to expand higher education with the development of regional and continental qualification frameworks to facilitate the mobility of students and staff; gender equality in primary and secondary education and harnessing the forces of education for regional integration.
The conference also agreed member states would serve as chief advocates for the Plan of Action by doing the following:
The conference also urged the AU Commission to speed up and formulise the process of working together with the Association for the Development of Education in Africa
"In order to ensure that our systems of education reflect African realities and meet the challenges of the African Renaissance, the conference reaffirmed commitment to realise the process of the rebuilding of African educational systems taking into account positive African culture, multilingualism and promotion of the teaching and learning of African history and societal values," said the statement.
The conference further committed to the development of national Book Policies to strengthen the development and production of quality educational materials
In recognition of the importance of higher education in national and regional development as well as in support of primary and secondary schooling, the conference reiterated the need to support revitalising higher education so that it could respond to human resource and research needs of the continent.
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