Accra, March 30, 2007 -- The 3rd SEIA Regional Conference will take place in Accra, Ghana on April 1-4, 2007. It is being hosted by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports of Ghana.
The third SEIA conference is jointly organized by the World Bank’s Africa Region Human Development Department (SEIA team), the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and the World Bank Institute.
This conference will host over 30 African Ministers and their country teams, donor agencies and representatives from African civil society. Two earlier SEIA conferences were held in Uganda ( Kampala 2003) and Senegal (Dakar 2004). The SEIA Synthesis Report, the Conference Brochure and other SEIA studies can be accessed online at www.worldbank.org/AFR/SEIA or via the ADEA website at http://www.adeanet.org/
A major constraint in Africa for making a tangible “transformation” happen in secondary education and training is the inefficiency in the use of public resources. To realize economic growth, African countries need to find ways of delivering more and better secondary graduates while simultaneously achieving significant efficiency gains.
The priority for Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries is to achieve the MDG of universal primary Education For All (EFA) by 2015. In addition, there is consensus that post-primary education development can not be neglected for economic growth and social reasons. Sustainable secondary education and training delivery in Africa requires national strategies that take into account issues linked to the quality and relevance of secondary graduate output, efficient public and private financing mechanisms, and improved skills for the labor market.
At present only about 35 percent of African youth complete junior secondary education and an even smaller proportion continue to senior secondary education. In view of the global economic and social challenges and growing competition in the market place Africa needs to improve the quality and relevance of knowledge and skills of its workforce. More access to secondary education and training and better quality and more relevant knowledge and skills among African youth is one of the key factors that will significantly reduce poverty.
The objectives of the conference are to discuss the SEIA Synthesis report which reflects the work by the Africa Region’s SEIA team and African and international educators over the past three years. The objectives of the conference also include fostering a better dialogue on secondary education and training in Africa among donor organizations, key stakeholders, and African governments. The discussions will particularly focus on (a) the conclusions and recommendations of the SEIA Synthesis Report, (b) reaching consensus between major stakeholders on realistic strategic solutions for a sustainable expansion of post-primary education and training in SSA countries in view of economic growth targets; and (c) improving harmonization of donor support and capacity building for SEIA in view the effects of the EFA-Fast Track Initiative (FTI).
The organizing partners hope that the third Regional SEIA Conference will result in participating countries having a stronger political and technical commitment to transforming their secondary education and training sub-sectors in a sustainable manner and that the conference will generate more donor support for reform and capacity building. Secondary Education and Training in Africa is one of the key ingredients for national economic growth.
Examples from Asia and Latin America also show that only economic growth can meet the financing needs for expansion of access and improvement of quality of post-primary education in Africa. Both should go hand in hand. Global competitiveness has also made it clear that African secondary education and training needs to vastly improve the quality of its secondary graduates. Expansion of access to African education will not be sustainable without meeting international standards of output quality, because this will “make or break” economic growth potential. And in the end it is economic growth at the country-level that will make expansion of education opportunities for African youth possible.
The SEIA Synthesis Report is a discussion document on the issues and potential for Africa’s secondary education and training to meet the challenges of the 21 st century. It is hoped that the conference discussions will lead to the development and implementation of sustainable strategies at the individual country level for expansion of access and improvement of quality and relevance. There is no doubt that many Sub-Sahara African countries are struggling with the rapid pace and needs of the global economy. Africa’s youth is one of its greatest assets. This conference hopes to contribute to a better understanding between the main players. In a follow up over the next years, and with the new IDA 15 currently being negotiated in Paris, the World Bank and ADEA hope to strengthen the lending portfolio for post-basic education. It is also hoped that other donors will see the need to support Africa beyond primary education.
Hosting the SEIA conference in Ghana is all the more appropriate given this country’s ambitions and commitment to extending and improving the opportunities of youth for post-basic education. At present, only every third junior secondary school graduate has an opportunity to continue his or her education at a senior secondary school. A little bit more than 40 percent of these are girls.
In the words of Hon Kwame Ampofo-Twumasi, Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Education Science and Sports, this conference could not have come at a better time. “We in Ghana are very much excited to be the host of the conference which is being held at a time Ghana is celebrating its golden jubilee and also at a time we are about to launch a new educational reform program that will address inadequacies in secondary education,” he said.
According to the Government’s White Paper on The Report of the Education Reform Review Committee, senior secondary education is aimed to be the terminal phase of education for the large majority of youth. Most of these are to be trained in technical and vocational programs. In order to achieve these goals, the Government intends to increase its funding, reform curriculum, train a large number of teachers and build new schools, especially in deprived regions.
For more information on the conference, visit: www.worldbank.org/AFR/SEIA
For more information on the World Bank’s work in Ghana, visit: www.worldbank.org/ghana
