Banjul - the Gambia — The ECOWAS expert's meeting on the education of girls and other vulnerable groups ended on Friday 19 April 2013 in Banjul with some important recommendations, whose implementation would go a long way to enhancing the promotion of the education of these marginalized social groups.
In the first set of recommendations, the experts urged ECOWAS to support and assist the Member States' stakeholders to work consistently and comprehensively for the mobilization of technical and financial support from relevant bodies to effectively implement the programmes and activities on the education of girls/women and other vulnerable groups. ECOWAS was also urged to leverage the progress made in some Member States in this sector and support others to catch up while supporting and assisting the States in embarking on high-level advocacy with a view to increasing funding for the implementation of programmes and activities. Regarding the current situation in Mali, the participants took note of the impacts of such crises on school infrastructure and recommended that the ECOWAS Commission include education in its emergency measures for Member States, with particular reference to this country.
They also recommended that ECOWAS establish a forum of partners involved in the education of girls and other vulnerable groups in the States to ensure a better coordinated response and resource mobilization while counterpart funding for programmes and projects initiated by partners should be provided. On the states, a recommendation was made for them to set aside a special budget line for the girls and vulnerable children as the education of girls and other vulnerable groups in Member States transcends various sectors and ministries.
Furthermore, the Banjul meeting recommended that national coordinators be appointed by the States, who should not only serve as focal points and members of the regional network but contribute to the coordination of initiatives in this sector. They were also urged to implement legislations/legal frameworks that guarantee the rights of girls and other disadvantaged groups, as well as enact laws that make basic education free and compulsory, with institutionalized fines or penalties against parents who refuse to send their children to school.
Moreover, they should ensure that basic education is actually free in terms of tuition fees, uniforms, textbooks and other teaching materials, while they should regularly allocate a share of their budget to the girls and other marginalized groups and institute mechanisms to ensure that these funds are actually used for the intended purpose. In addition, the States were encouraged to ensure the implementation of policies and programmes for the introduction of national languages, folklore and cultural activities in the educational system in order to mitigate the impact of the transition from the home to the school and facilitate learning. States were also urged to strengthen the existing Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) so as to produce regular and reliable data to impact on planning and encourage women participation in the educational system to serve as models to the community, particularly in teaching was another recommendation made to the States.
The recommendation also concern partners who were asked to undertake advocacy actions with ECOWAS and the Member States on the deployment of human and financial resources for identified programmes and activities. They should sensitize the States on the access, retention and, at least, the completion of basic education. These partners, whose representatives participated actively in the Banjul meeting, should also provide technical and financial support to ECOWAS and the Member States with a view to expediting the programmes and activities undertaken for the education of the girls and other vulnerable groups. During the closing ceremony, the delegates and other key stakeholders expressed satisfaction at the excellent work and commended ECOWAS' intervention while advocating for the continuation of this useful and relevant intervention for the education of girls/women and other vulnerable groups.
The ECOWAS Director of Edcuation, Culture, Science and Technology, Professor Abdoulaye Maiga represented the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Mr. Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo, at the closing ceremony during which expressed gratitude to all the participants for their contribution to the success of the meeting. He gave the assurance that the Commission will strive to implement the key recommendations before asking all the delegates to facilitate the implementation of the key recommendations in their countries. In her closing remarks, the Director of Basic and Secondary Education in The Gambia, Mrs. Amie Kolleh Mbye, who represented the country's Minister of Education, commended the participants for the quality of work done. She noted that with the excellent coverage of the many factors militating against the education of the girls/women and other vulnerable groups, there was optimism about the prospect for addressing the challenges to these groups.
In addition, Mrs. Amie Kolleh Mbye reaffirmed the commitment of the Gambian government to redouble its efforts in order to promote the education of the girls/women and other vulnerable groups. During the four-day meeting, the participants had a presentation on the status of implementation of the ECOWAS programme on girls' education, and presentations from UNESCO, UNICEF, CIEFFA/AU (International Centre for Girls' and Women's Education in Africa), FAWE (Forum for African Women Educationalists) and ANCEFA (African Network Campaign on Education for All). Subsequently, each ECOWAS Member State made a presentation on its own achievements in the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the campaign on the Education for All (EFA) and the implementation of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) programmes.
It should be noted that with a view to dealing with the plight of young girls, women and other vulnerable groups, the ECOWAS Commission is currently undertaking multisectoral approaches such as the Gender Division's Child and Sexual Harassment Policy, and the Disaster Management Division's Child Protection Policy.
