ECOWAS Parliament meets to harmonise education in sub-region
Members of the ECOWAS Parliament are meeting in Accra to strategise how to harmonise the educational system and curricula in the sub-region.
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The focus is to ensure that degrees, diplomas, certificates and other qualifications receive similar recognition in member states.
The aim is to facilitate educational exchange programmes and job acquisitions in Anglophone and Francophone countries in the West African sub-region.
The five-day delocalised meeting of the joint Committee on Education, Science and Technology/Communication and Information Technology is being held on the theme: "The Status of Harmonisation of Educational System and Curricular in West Africa: with Special Reference on Equivalence of Degrees, Diplomas, Certificates and other Qualifications.”
Harmonisation
Opening the meeting last Tuesday, the Speaker of Ghana's Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, in a speech read on his behalf by the Deputy Minority Leader, Mr James Avedzi, said the harmonisation of the educational system and curricula was relevant for the achievement of the objective of free movement of persons in the sub-region.
He said free movement of citizens within the sub-region required that "citizens are able to get jobs and employment in any country of the sub-region depending on one’s qualification, skills, job experience and competencies."
However, he said, due to variations in certificates, diplomas and degrees, especially between the Anglophone and Francophone blocs in the sub-region, there had been challenges of acceptance of those qualifications from persons who moved from one country to the other in the sub-region in search of jobs.
Labour mobility
Prof. Oquaye asked ECOWAS to promote labour mobility through a harmonised system that recognised the equivalence of certificates, diplomas and degrees across the Anglophone and Francophone blocs in the sub-region.
"The overriding aim will be to provide relevant and functional educational systems that will train the requisite human resource to address the challenges of regional economic development and integration," he said.
ECOWAS Parliament
The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Mr Moustapha Cisse Lo, said it was only through the harmonisation of the educational system and curricular and unity in the sub-region that the citizens could tap the benefits of their resources.
He called for a concerted effort to facilitate exchange programmes and the mobility of teachers to increase employment opportunities for teachers.
Mr Cisse Lo affirmed the commitment of the ECOWAS Parliament to supporting efforts at achieving the harmonisation of the educational system and curricula in the sub-region.
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