Ei-iE

An EI delegation attended the 56th Ministerial Session of the Conférence des Ministres de l’Education des Etats et gouvernements membres de la Francophonie (CONFEMEN) held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, from 10-12 July, under the theme: “Inclusive education and quality education for all: challenges, priorities and perspectives for the post-2015 agenda”.

Sixteen Ministers from French-speaking countries from all over the world, education experts from 26 countries, as well as representatives of partner organisations such as the Global Partnership for Education, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie(OIF), UNESCO, the Pan-African Conference on Teacher Education and Development, and the Inter-American Development Bank, participated in the event.

Importance of education

In his opening speech on 10 July, Cote d’Ivoire’s Minister for internal affairs and security, Hamed Bakayoko,stressed that under Alassane Ouattara’s Presidency, education holds a central role and must lead to building a better world in which children will successfully face life’s challenges.

“Our world’s future depends on choices we make today,” he said. “Our society must acknowledge and efficiently confront freedom, dialogue between culture and diversity issues, and it is a school’s mission to help with that and contribute to global solidarity.”

Cote d’Ivoire’s Education Minister, Kandia Camara, later underlined her country’s involvement in the CONFEMEN, “an energy catalysing institution”, and explained that her government’s ambition is to achieve a knowledge-based economy leading to sustainable development.

Camara is now CONFEMEN president for the next two years, succeeding the Minister of Chad.

At the CONFEMEN Ministerial Session, the strategic 2015-2016 action plan including teachers’ issues was also adopted and the mandate of the CONFEMEN General Secretary, Ki Boureima, was renewed for a further four years.

The discussion paper prepared by CONFEMEN consultant Mamadou Ndoye was very useful and highlighted new challenges, such as education as a universal human right, quality, equity, efficiency, learning outcomes, lifelong learning, and citizenship.

EI: Post-2015 agenda demands

EI Chief Regional Coordinator for Africa Assibi Napoe also explained EI’s Unite for Quality Education (Unite) campaign and the EI Post-2015 Agenda. She lobbied for support for the Unite campaign, and called for governments to enter into social dialogue with teachers’ unions at national level.

“EI’s Unite for Quality Education campaign and Post-2015 Agenda were well received,” Napoe noted. “The Post-2015 agenda proposed by CONFEMEN is quite similar to EI’s one. To ensure inclusive and quality education for all in the Post-2015 Agenda, the conference demands that: free and compulsory basic education is expanded, lifelong education and training is consolidated, guaranteed sustainable funding is put in place, and good governance is ensured.”