Ecowas economic community of West African States.ppt

Understanding ECOWAS

1. PROGRESS REPORT ON IMPLEMENTATION OF
THE AFRICAN UNION’S PLAN OF ACTION FOR
THE SECOND DECADE OF EDUCATION FOR
AFRICA
PACTED III-COMEDAF BUREAU, ADDIS ABABA
15-20 July 2013
1
Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS)
ECOWAS Commission, Abuja
Department of Human Development and Gender
Directorate of Education, Culture, Science and Technology

2. Established by our founding fathers on 28th of May
1975, in Lagos, Nigeria
Composed of 15 West African Countries (8
Francophone, 5 Anglophone & 2 Luxophone
countries).
With a population of about 300 million
Accounts for 4.6% of the world population and over
40% of that of sub-Saharan Africa
Land area (5,110,914 km2), stretches from the
Cape Verde archipelago in the West to Nigeria in
the East.
Therefore the most populated Regional Community
in the Continent
BACKGROUND INFORMATION

3. 3

4. The Vision of ECOWAS towards an ECOWAS
Peoples as against ECOWAS of States is to
achieve “A region without borders in which
the populations can access and are able to
Harness its abundant resources by creating
Opportunities for the population and sustainable
environment”.
VISION OF ECOWAS

5. Equality and Interdependence
Inter-state Co-operation
Solidarity and collective self-reliance
Harmonization of Policies and Programmes.
Non-aggression
Regional Peace, Stability and Security
Peaceful Settlement of Disputes
Respect, Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
Promotion and Consolidation of Democracy and Good
Governance
Accountability, Economic and Social Justice.
ECOWAS FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

6. To promote cooperation and integration,
leading to the establishment of an Economic
and Monetary Union in West Africa in order to
raise the living standards of its people, ensure
economic growth, foster relations among
Member States and contribute to the progress
and development of the African Continent.
OBJECTIVES OF ECOWAS

7. Francophone countries have more that one Ministry of
Education and practice the 6-4-3-4 school system
Anglophone countries except the Gambia have one Ministry
of Education and practice the 6-3-3-4 system
Cape Verde has three Ministries and 6-6-3-3 school system
Guinea Bissau has a more complex structure-a Ministry in
charge of Education, Sports and Culture with two Deputy
Ministers specific to Education
Guineas Bissau also practice a system of four years of primary
education; followed by two years of complementary
education; six years of secondary education with the last
years designated to pre-university and finally four or five
years of university education ( In summary 6-4-2-4) 7
STRUCTURE OF EDUCATION SYSTEMS

8. Increase in Gross Enrolment Ration (GER) at the primary level
in 10 out of 12 reporting countries ranging from 4.1 per cent
in Senegal to 15.5 per cent in Burkina Faso
However, regional average declined by 1.8 per cent largely
due to 19.8 per cent decline reported by Nigeria in the GER
for primary education from 102.9 per cent in 2006 to 83.1 per
cent in 2009
It is envisaged that this has greatly improved due to the
massive of the current administration of Nigeria for street
children
In all but one member state, the GER for female learners rose
at a faster pace than that of males, an indication that
interventions for improving access of girls are yielding
dividends
8
REGIONAL OVERVIEW OF PROGRESS ON
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

9. •According to available data at the UIS for 2006, a huge
chunk of learners in the region that should be in
secondary school were out of school, with only 31.7 per
cent of potential learners enrolled against the
continental average of 39%
•Despite improved capacity by Member States, only six
countries, (Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana,
Guinea, Mali and Nigeria) reported higher GER’s at this
level in 2009.
•Extreme cases of GER of 85.4 per in cent Cape Verde
and 20 per cent in Burkina Faso and Niger
9
REGIONAL OVERVIEW OF PROGRESS ON PRIMARY AND
SECONDARY EDUCATION CONT.

10. Sensitization and advocacy of the Plan of Action for the
Second Decade of Education for Africa (2006-2015)
Presentation of regional reports
Focal persons/committees on the POA
Regional integration of AU POA into existing priorities
Status of a Division for Education
Additional staff for Education Division since November
2012
Matrix of AU Plan of Action has formed the basis for
education input to ECOWAS Strategic Plan and annual
work programmes
Increase in annual budgetary allocation and external
resource mobilization
10
COORDINATION OF IMPLEMENTATION

11. Partnerships:
Key among partners:
UNESCO on Conferences of Ministers; TVET curriculum;
IATT
UNDP on IATT, NQF & RQF
World Bank, UNICEF, UNAIDS on School Health, HE,
Nutrition and HIV/AIDS
ADEA Working Group on Education Management and Policy
Support –EMIS N&S, Assessment, capacity building
strategy, regional reports
UNICEF West and Central Africa, CIEFFA and FAWE on Girls
Education
AfDB-Equivalence of Certificates, EMIS and Higher
Education
EU Ministries of Youth and ECOWAS Youth and
Development Center on the training of 287 youths in
different fields of Agriculture and electricity since 2008
11
COORDINATION OF IMPLEMENTATION CONT.

12. •The template of AUC for COMEDAF V
•POA for 2
nd
Decade (2006-2015
•Collaboration with the ADEA (WGEMPS
•2006 as the baseline year, while 2009 as the target year
•For reasons of international comparability of data, the
statistics referred to in this report are sourced from the
database of UNESCO Institute for Statistics
•Where possible, the report has relied on weighted averages,
produced by UIS, to balance the relative population sizes of
countries to each other. Where, however, these weighted
regional averages are not available, a simple average has been
derived from adding up the indicators and dividing by the
number of reporting countries.
12
PROGRESS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE POA-
Methodological considerations

13. By 2009-Overall improvement regionally
Improved access in ten countries with gender parity in
only three countries(Senegal, Gambia and Ghana)
Improving access but at slower pace with disparities at
secondary and tertiary levels-average enrolment of five
males to every female at university level in Niger, Mali and
Burkina Faso
Teaching remains a male dominated profession, 32 per
cent of primary school teachers are females -worse at
secondary level
The region may not meet the 2015 MDG and EFA goals
on girls’ education
Meeting of experts was held in April to prepare a status
report and chart the way forward
13
PROGRESS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE POA-
Gender and Culture

14. •ECOWAS region had 16 million children out of
school in 2009
•Number of out of school children is on the
increase, up to 9% from 2006
•Nigeria had 7 million out of school children (2006),
Burkina Faso and Niger each 1.2 million (2009)
•Bold steps are being taken to address this
retrogression by the countries
•In 5 of the 8 reporting countries majority of out-of-
school learners are female
•Need to urgently improve access, further explore
catch up or alternative modalities 14
PROGRESS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE POA-
Out –of –school children

15. Data availability improved from 31 per cent of AU
indicators having data in 2006 to 45 per cent of AU
indicators reported on.
Extreme disparities of existing required data -1.6%
from Liberia against 88% from Niger
Data availability in Nigeria and Guinea Bissau had
worsened
Region has a school census return rate over 90 per
cent, albeit for public institutions only.
Progress remains very slow-will the EMIS goal in the AU
POA be achieved?
There is need to collect return rate information on non
public institutions.
15
PROGRESS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE POA-
Education Management Information Systems (EMIS)

16. Despite reduced data availability Gender and Culture
remains with most comprehensive data coverage.
Highest rate of data blanks are in the area of Higher
and Tertiary education; and TVET
A regional EMIS assessment in 2010 identified the
following as key challenges
a)Lack of legal frameworks and limited sanctions for breach
b)Focus on primary sector in production of statistics
c)Inadequate human, financial and ICT resources
d)Lack of statistics culture, year books published in ad-hoc fashion
and policy makers seldom refer to statistics
e)EMIS function is fragmented –various ministries /Agencies-and
poorly coordinated
16
EDUCATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION
SYSTEMS (EMIS) CONT.

17. EDUCATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
(EMIS) CONT.
Rescue measures:
•Advocacy among Ministers for national EMIS Units
using the report of Assessment Survey among
Ministers in 2012
•Adoption of EMIS Norms and Standards developed in
2011 in collaboration with ADEA (WGEMPS) by
Ministers in 2012
•Development of a Capacity building Strategy in in
2012 collaboration with ADEA (WGEMPS)
•Development of a comprehensive proposal/roadmap
in 2013 in collaboration with ADEA (WGEMPS) for
resource mobilization

18. •In 7 countries, teachers instructing fewer learners in 2009
compared to 2006. Despite slow decline in primary Pupil
Teacher Ratio the region still requires more teachers as 6
countries have PTR greater than 42 pupil per teacher
•70 per cent of ECOWAS primary teachers are trained, challenges
remain in Benin, Ghana, Senegal and Togo with less than 50 per
cent of teachers trained as at 2009
•Primary school teacher supply improved by 23 per cent in 3
years while secondary improved by 36 per cent
•At secondary level number of female teachers rose by 50 per
cent over the 3 year period
•ECOWAS is implementing capacity building for teachers and
heads of institutions in TVET and science
PROGRESS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE POA-
Teacher Development

19. •In 2006, one out of every tertiary learners in Africa were domiciled in
the ECOWAS region
•Over the three year period, all the reporting countries (5) had
recorded impressive rise in enrolment-highest being 85% in Cape
Verde and Ghana, and the lowest though impressive being 43% in
Niger; Burkina Faso and Senegal have recorded increase of 56% and
50% respectively
•However, an average access of 6 students per 1000 inhabitants in
ECOWAS to higher and tertiary Education compared to 9 students per
1000 on the continent, is still rather low
•In 2006, Niger had lowest levels of access to tertiary education of 1
student per 1000 inhabitants while Cape Verde has 18 per 1000, an
80% jump from 10 students per 1000 inhabitants.
19
PROGRESS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE POA-
Higher /Tertiary Education

20. Also Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana recorded a high ratio of 8 students
per 1000 inhabitants in 2009
Only Burkina and Ghana have available data on female graduates in 2009
with 20% and 42% in Burkina and Ghana respectively
Studies of strategic importance, engineering, science and manufacturing
remain closed to males, with less than 30% of enrolments being females
ECOWAS graduates are concentrated in the social sciences, business and
law than in any other field
Rescue measures:
Funds have been allocated to a feasibility study on the establishment of
an ECOWAS university after the order of the AU PAU
Criteria for the establishment of centres of excellence have been
developed
Consultations are ongoing with the World Bank for the development of a
regional HE policy
20
HIGHER/ TERTIARY EDUCATION CONT.

21. PROGRESS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE
POA-LITERACY
•ItisenvisagedthatRegionalliteracyratewillimproveby7%
to54%in2014
•Despiteimprovingliteracy,onlythreeoutofeverytenadults
inNiger,MaliandBurkinaFasocanreadandwrite
•Mostoftheseilliteratepeoplearefemales-fourilliterate
womentoeveryilliterateman
•Youthliteracyisalsoimproving,66%willbeliteratebyendof
2014.
•ECOWASreportedtheworstilliteracyprofileonthecontinent
•Rescuemeasuresarenotyetinplaceattheregionallevelbut
concertedeffortsarebeingmadebynationalgovernments
•Needforcollaboration

22. 600000ofthe5millionTVETenrolmentsonthe
continentareinECOWAS
Strong growth in TVET enrolments was reported in Guinea
156% increase, Mali 96% and Ghana 60%
However, TVET remains a small sector with only 5% of
secondary enrolments in TVET in 2009
40% of TVET students in the region are female
Supply of trained teachers for TVET remains a challenge
22
PROGRESS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE
POA-TVET

23. PROGRESS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE
POA-TVET CONTD.
Rescue measures include:
•Capacity building of national TVET Personnel (Heads of institutions,
Inspectors, Teachers, Administrator etc) on annual basis in each country
on a UNESCO developed format and methodology for the revision and
development of TVET Curriculum and Instructional materials (Over 1000
personnel already trained)
•Assistance by UNESCO to develop curriculum in on some emerging fields-
computer, mobile technology
•Inauguration of regional IATT on TVET secretariat and chair at UNESCO
and UNDP regional offices in Dakar respectively
•Survey on TVET MIS and Delivery in Member States, beginning with 5
countries already in 2013
•Development of guidelines for RQF and NQF in 2012 under IATT
•Positive response from Member States through replication of the training
sessions, actual curriculum revision and ongoing internal consultations

24. •Increasingawarenessontheprovisionofadequatecurriculumandteachingand
learningmaterials
•EachprimarypupilinBurkinaFaso,Benin,GuineaandMalihasacore
mathematicstextbook.Benin,Guinea,MaliandNigerprovideeachpupilwith
theirownreadingtextbook.
•However,challengesexitinmanycountriesasaresultoflimitedfunds.
•InTogoalmostfourlearnersshareasinglemathematicstextbook,whileupto
threepupilsshareareadingbookinprimaryschool.
•InBurkinaFasoandtheGambiathereisonereadingtextbookforeverytwo
primarypupils
Rescuemeasures:
•AdaptationofTVETcurriculumdevelopmentandrevisionformattoothersub-
sectorsofeducation
•Developmentofe-learningpolicyandPIDstoderiveoptimumbenefitfrom
existingpersonnelandfacilities-awaitingadoptionbyrelevantMinisters
24
PROGRESS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE POA-
Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Materials

25. 7 out of 10 children of primary age are in school
25 per cent of children who should be in secondary are in
school largely as a result of
a)High dropout rate with only 66 per cent of student
surviving primary school
b)Less than 60 per cent of students in Burkina Faso, Guinea
and Niger make it to last grade of primary
c)Only 68 per cent of primary school learners transit to
secondary education
Need to improve, the ability of the school system to retain
learners and ensure their transition to next levels
Rescue measure-school feeding
Regional consultation on free and compulsory education using
international conventions as legal framework 25
PROGRESS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE
POA-Quality Management

26. •Investment per student at primary level varies across the region from
USD178 in Niger to USD567 in Cape Verde
•On average 20 % of ECOWAS region’s total government expenditure is
on education (Gambia 16% -lowest, Senegal and Ghana 24% -highest)
•Over the 3 year period, public expenditure on education rose in 4
countries from 0.2% in 2006 to 1.7% in 2009.
26
QUALITY MANAGEMENT CONT.

27. •LowaccesslevelstoECDwithoneoffive
childreninschool.FivecountrieshaveNet
Enrolmentoflessthan10%
•Needforpolicyreformandgreaterresource
allocationtoimproveaccesstoECD
•QualityofECDintheregionisquestionable,
26%ofstudentsrepeatGrade1inTogo.
RepetitionratesarealsohighinGambia,Guinea
andMali
27
PROGRESS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE
POA Early Childhood and Development

28. •Regionhashighlyfeminised(64%female)and
untrainedECDteachercorps
•Highpopulationgrowthrates(5childrenperwoman)
•NeedtoincreasecapacityintheECOWASeducation
systemtoaccommodategrowingpopulation
•Needforincreasedinvestmentinhealthand
nutritioninitiativestoensurelearnerscangainmore
fromtheclassroomexperience
28
EARLY CHILDHOOD AND DEVELOPMENT CONT.

29. •Network of Focal persons from Ministries of Education was
inaugurated in 2001
•Due to the peculiarities of the challenges of HIV and AIDS, no
one country has all the answers but different countries have
posted unique achievements
(i)Nigeria has developed a manual for acceptable Family Life
Health Education to all parts of the country despite its
diversity
(ii) Senegal has a functional school health unit that caters for HIV
and AIDS, Nutrition, Reproductive Health and Malaria
29
CROSS CUTTING ISSUES-EDUCATION
SECTOR RESPONSE TO HIV/AIDS

30. (iii) Guinea, Benin, Nigeria, Ghana have developed HIV and AIDS policies
(iv) Ghana has successfully integrated HIV and AIDS into school curricula
(v) The Network has established a coordinating committee of four
countries and two partners to embark on resource mobilization and to
ensure that member states abide by the regional Plan of Action
(vi) Scope of the Network has been expanded to include other health
concerns-Nutrition, Malaria, De-worming, Tuberculoses etc affecting
the education system
However Effective operation of the Network is marred by shortage or
lack of funds
30
EDUCATION SECTOR RESPONSE TO
HIV/AIDS CONT.

31. •Achievement since 2004 when e-learning was
adopted as a priority include:
•Inauguration of an internal Task Force
•Survey in Member States
•Development of e-learning Policy
•Development of eight Project Implementation
Documents (PIDs) awaiting adoption by the
Ministers
31
CROSS CUTTING ISSUES -e-learning

32. •Conceptual Frameworks have been developed on the
PIDs namely:
•ICT Youth entrepreneurship Plan
•TVET and skills entrepreneurship
•Excellence in e-learning awards
•ICT Youth volunteer corps
•e-tourism
•Teachers’ e-learning content Awards Scheme
•ICT Youth business plan
32
E-LEARNING CONT.

33. National level
Funds constraint
Limited number and quality of human resources
Poor infrastructure
Dissipation of limited resources between
commitments in ECOWAS and other blocks
Weak structures for internal coordination and
implementation of the Focus Areas
Other challenges peculiar to individual countries
33
CHALLENGES

34. •Regional Level
•Inadequate coordination of implementation in
Member States due to highly limited staff. In
addition to its traditional roles of
coordination, research, harmonization of
policies, programmes and activities, additional
responsibilities of programme implementation
are placed on the technical Departments.
•Limited financial resources
34
CHALLENGES CONT.

35. The following regional approaches have been
improve the situation:
Advocacy during sectoral and statutory meetings
consultative and Interactive meetings
Capacity Building in Member States and at the
regional level
Studies and Surveys
Policy development
Resource Mobilization (Internal and External)
Institutionalized Partnerships (Technical and
Financial
35
REGIONAL INTERVENTIONS

36. Steady progress has been made by ECOWAS and its
Member States during this reporting period to
domesticate the Focus Areas of the Plan of Action for
the Second Decade of Education in Africa
A lot more deserves to be done in the education
sector to guarantee evidential access for the teaming
population of children, youths and adults
There is the need to beef up quality in all
ramifications and literacy
36
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

37. •Girls and women participation in Education,
particularly at the tertiary level remains
abysmally low. There is need for more aggressive
interventions/legislations
•ECOWAS graduates are concentrated in the social
sciences, business and law than in any other field.
Need to improve participation in agriculture,
engineering, science, manufacturing and
construction
•Due to high illiteracy and out of school population, TVET
should be deployed in a more pragmatic manner to
promote employment and wealth creation
37
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
CONT.

38. THANK YOU
JE VOUS REMERCIE
MUITO OBRIGADO
APPRECIATION☻☺☻☺☻☺☻☺
☻☺