Lome — ECOWAS Member States have been urged to harmonize the programmes and qualifications of their tertiary education systems as a major step towards regional integration and human development. Addressing the opening of a four-day regional experts' meeting in Lome, Togo, on Wednesday, 3rd August 2011, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Human Development and Gender, Dr. Adrienne Diop, said a unified and harmonized educational system would not only enrich the value and knowledge within an ECOWAS of people but would also serve as a catalyst for professional mobility and regional integration.
To this end, she said effective partnerships and synergy of actions were necessary to achieve a unified regional mechanism that will ease the movement of students, teachers and researchers within the Community, in line with the ECOWAS 2020 objectives. Speaking in the same vein while declaring the meeting open, Mr. Adade Gbikpon Gaba, Technical Adviser in Togo's Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research who represented the Minister, said the objectives of the ECOWAS Convention on the Equivalence of Certificates were in tune with international trend and the demands of globalization. He therefore called on ECOWAS countries to rise above language barriers and maximize the benefits of similarities in their rich educational systems to drive integration and development of the region. UNESCO Representative, Professor Hassana Alidou, pledged the support of the Regional Bureau for Education in Africa to the ECOWAS initiative, which she said was in consonance with the objectives of the Revised Arusha Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications in Higher Education in Africa. She disclosed that a Forum of African Parliamentarians has been scheduled for March 2012 on the ratification of the Arusha document toward the harmonization of qualifications from tertiary institutions of learning on the continent. Prof Olugbemiro Jegede, Secretary General, Association of African Universities (AAU) described the ECOWAS Convention on Equivalence of Certificates as a stepping stone to the free movement of students, lecturers and researchers, toward the realization of the ECOWAS Commission's flagship Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Goods and Services.
He underscored the importance of the West African hub to the emerging Pan- African University, and informed the meeting that as part of efforts to strengthen partnerships and cooperation toward the harmonization of educational programmes continent-wide, the Association of West African Universities was launched in January 2011, adding that the AAU also plans a workshop of Vice Chancellors of African Universities. The ECOWAS Commission is convinced that recognition of degrees, diplomas, certificates and other qualifications and/or their equivalence is a prerequisite for increased mobility of students, teachers and specialists and a means of accelerating all round development and achieving regional integration. The Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government adopted the Convention on Equivalence of Certificates in 2003 to harmonize the criteria for admission into institutions of higher learning, research institutes and vocational training centres; certificates and the educational and training systems in the 15 Member States of the Community. Based on the recommendations of the ad-hoc Committee of five Member States (Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal), as well as ex-officio members as strategic partners set up to provide necessary guidance towards the implementation of the Convention, the ECOWAS Commission engaged two consultants in 2009 to conduct a feasibility study for the implementation of the Convention.
The Lome meeting is to validate the report of the consultants that undertook the study and make necessary recommendations based on inputs from experts in the evaluation and accreditation of academic programmes and certificates. The meeting is also expected to develop modalities for implementation of the recommendations of the consultants and the meeting of the ad-hoc Committee; create awareness and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas in order to secure a buy-in by a wide spectrum of stakeholders; and also consider the roadmap developed by the ad-hoc Committee for the implementation of the Convention.
