Earlier in the week, the African Union and the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) convened in the name of education at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The meeting was to discuss an implementation strategy the Continental Education Strategy of 2016-2025, to ensure its ability to feasibly carry it out across all member states.
In attendance, Dr Martial De Pail Ikounga, commissioner of Human Resources, Science and Technology noted that AUC design policies fully rely on the implementation of member states, which gives reason for AU to forge a collaborative pact with PAP.
At the end of the meeting, the AU and PAP agreed to develop a framework in which parliamentarians play a key role of communicating the continental framework on national levels – to promote their domestication and implementation in all member states.
The AU Continental Education Strategy, developed in June this year is a follow-up strategy from the Plan of action for the second decade of education for Africa which comes to an end at the end of this year. The strategy aims to take advantage of the global post 2015 discussions on development goals, and takes Agenda 2063 as the over-arching vision.
It also comes at a pivotal time where ten heads of state and government are set as champions for education in Africa established in the summit held in June. Set by commissioner Dr. Ikounga the strategy is a solution to the need for a paradigm shift in education systems that empower African youth including young girls with appropriate competencies to create a mindset which is capable of problem solving and innovation. Within the strategy, issues of quality of pedagogies, learning environments, school infrastructure and inclusive definition are addressed.
With proper implementation and cooperation through all countries under the African Union, hopefully current issues within our education system can be addressed and ideals reached in 2025.
