Skip to main content

ELA African Round Up Part 2

GESCI participated in two important sessions at ELA the day before the full conference opened. The first was the Ministerial Round Table – Education Access, Quality and Equity for African Youth. The Roundtable was supported by GESCI, IICD, UNECA and AADLC under the patronage of The United Republic of Tanzania, and organized or course by ICWE. Senior officials from Ministries of Education, Higher Education, Communication, Science and Technology, and Vocational Education and Training from across Africa attended. Executives and CEOs from technology, and publishing companies joined them, as did representative from the World Bank, the tertiary education sector, and even NATO. Off to a late start, the opening address was delivered by the Minister of Communications, Technology and Science, Tanzania. The focus of the morning’s session was on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills and a panel session followed during which Dr. Patti Swarts from GESCI presented a thereafter much extolled paper entitled, Re-engineering Education and Training for Economic and Social Development in the 21st Century: A Focus on Technology and Skills Development in National Education and Training Systems in Africa. The paper, which argues for the re-engineering of education and training systems for sustainable socio-economic development, asks senior ministry officials to consider several questions, including:
GESCI participated in two important sessions at ELA the day before the full conference opened. The first was the Ministerial Round Table – Education Access, Quality and Equity for African Youth. The Roundtable was supported by GESCI, IICD, UNECA and AADLC under the patronage of The United Republic of Tanzania, and organized or course by ICWE. Senior officials from Ministries of Education, Higher Education, Communication, Science and Technology, and Vocational Education and Training from across Africa attended. Executives and CEOs from technology, and publishing companies joined them, as did representative from the World Bank, the tertiary education sector, and even NATO. Off to a late start, the opening address was delivered by the Minister of Communications, Technology and Science, Tanzania. The focus of the morning’s session was on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills and a panel session followed during which Dr. Patti Swarts from GESCI presented a thereafter much extolled paper entitled, Re-engineering Education and Training for Economic and Social Development in the 21st Century: A Focus on Technology and Skills Development in National Education and Training Systems in Africa. The paper, which argues for the re-engineering of education and training systems for sustainable socio-economic development, asks senior ministry officials to consider several questions, including:
  • What critical success factors need to be considered if education and training systems are to be re-engineered to meet the challenges and opportunities presented by an increasing youth population?
  • How should education and training systems (including TVSD) be re-engineered to optimize the impact of emerging ICT technologies for 21st Century youth skills development?
  • How can systems evaluate the success of technology integration policies and initiatives for educational transformation and re-engineering?
The paper also draws attention to the relatively few direct references to Technical and Vocational Skills Development in the MDF Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, despite the widely acknowledged fact that youth unemployment is a major trigger for social instability. Even so, the paper informs us that many African governments are prioritizing youth skills development because Africa has the largest percentage of young people in the world – at 60% of the population. The development of employable skills has emerged as a prioritized area for many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and among regional bodies, and development partners. They face very high unemployment rates, while also constituting a vast reservoir of talent, skills and opportunity. Integral to the discussions of systems re-engineering the paper points out, is the role that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can play. The potential of emerging technologies in the African socio-economic development landscape suggests that innovation is only just beginning. African mobile communications growth since 2000 has significantly outpaced expansion in all other global regions (Kapstein 2009). The paper concludes by informing us that for effective interventions, education and training have to be viewed as interrelated drivers for socio economic development, and while the appropriate solution for a specific country will always be unique, there are some commonalities. These commonalities include:
  • The need to explore the potential of ICT integration to address both skill demands and employment possibilities.
  • The need to coordinate and regulate fragmented country delivery systems and policies within the field of TVSD and interventions to revitalize the field. This requires cross-ministerial collaboration.
  • The need to ensure demand-driven skills provision by actively engaging industry in curricula development and skills identification.
  • The need to ensure that lectures and instructors continually upgrade their skills and understand how to manage change processes.
  • The need to adopt a holistic approach to reengineering that integrates spheres of education, innovation and technology, so that appropriate solutions could be identified.
Please download the full MRT issues paper here
gesci.org/assets/files/Knowledge%20Centre/GESCI_MRT_Issues_Paper_2011-05-18_Final_version.pdf Or under News & Events on the home page
www.gesci.org GESCI also hosted a workshop entitled Tools and Frameworks for Assessing ICT Competencies and Skills of TVET Lecturers and Tutors. The workshop was facilitated by Mary Hooker, GESCI Research Manager, and Esther Wachira, GESCI eLearning Specialist. The workshop was highly interactive and focused on the tools and frameworks developed by GESCI in partner country engagements for contextualizing ICT competencies for teachers in mainstream and TVET education sectors. Ms Hooker and Ms Wachira presented the background and context for development of contextualized ICT competencies for assessment and planning. A practical simulation session helped to contextualize competencies for assessment and learning and the ensuing discussion and debate on the use of ICT standards and competencies caused the session to over-run, must to the satisfaction of a packed audience. Please download the presentations here:
gesci.org/assets/files/Knowledge%20Centre/IntstitutionalSnapshot3_Esther_eLA.ppt By Niamh Brannigan gesci.org/assets/files/Knowledge%20Centre/ELA_Tanzania_ICT-Competencies_TIVET.ppt Kapstein, E . B. (2009), Africa’s Capitalist Revolution. Foreign Affairs, 88(4), 119-128.

Subscribe Now

Receive regular updates and early alerts on new programme launches.