Forum on ICT integration in African education and training opens in Tunis

More and better education is crucial for Africa’s continued economic growth and for the job opportunities that such growth brings for the continent’s population. To that end, Africa’s educators must invest much more time, money and effort in information and communication technology.
That was the central message heard at the opening of the First African Ministerial Forum in ICT Integration in Education and Training that is taking place between 9 and 11 December 2013 in Tunisia. 
The aim of the forum is to boost the ability of African education ministers to introduce strong policies on information and communication technology (ICT) to accelerate their education and training systems.
In turn, these systems will become powerful tools to grow the human capital needed for sustainable development in Africa.
The use of ICT can considerably ease the formidable challenges faced by African education and training systems.  Currently, more than 30 million African children of primary school age do not go to school and there is an estimated shortfall of more than a million teachers on the continent.
The initial objective of the forum is to create a high level platform for dialogue bringing together decision-makers from African education ministries and representatives from the ICT sector, development bodies and civil society.
The Forum is co-organized by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Organisation internationale de la francophonie (OIP) and US computing company, Intel, under the auspices of the Tunisian government through its ministry of education.
At the opening on 9 December, Mr. Boukary Savadogo, chief of the AfDB’s education division, emphasised how important ICT was to the Bank and within its ten-year strategy for 2013-22, and how it was an important tool in fighting unemployment in Africa.
Fenchun Miao, ICT in education specialist at UNESCO, said ICT was the key to “better learning for all.”  He said it was one of the “vital pillars” for the post-2013 education agenda.
He added that his organization was developing the ability of teachers around the world in the use of ICT in education.  UNESCO had already been successful in this goal in Asia, working with Intel, and that “we hope we can do the same thing in Africa.”
He welcomed the initiative that resulted in the forum and declared: “I sincerely hope this is just the start of our cooperation.”
Mr. Moise Leye, Intel’s Africa corporate affairs director, welcomed the large and varied attendance at the forum, saying: “Your presence here shows your commitment to make ICT a powerful tool for education growth.”
He said there was a “sense of urgency” about the task ahead and the need for “education for all on the African continent.”
Mr. Hamidou Boukary, ADEA’s acting executive secretary, echoed Mr Leye, saying: “We at ADEA are heartened by the large and quality turn-out at this event.”
He said that Africa’s economic growth rate was attracting more and more direct investment and that called for improving the quality of education and training for Africans.  Africa needed to “unleash its tremendous potential.”
He remarked that the challenges ahead were “implementation, implementation, implementation” and “scaling up, scaling up, scaling up.”
Topics covered by the forum over the three days will include lessons learned in countries that have reached different phases of ICT integration in education and training, and the formulation, financing, implementation and monitoring of ICT policies.  It will also cover the role of ICT in improving the professional development of teachers and teaching practices; the development and sharing of digital content; the deployment of ICT hardware and connectivity issues; challenges in scaling up ICT integration practices; learning opportunities via cell phones; the use of ICT to expand learning opportunities for marginalized populations, and public-private partnerships for ICT in education.