Tunisia Hosting African Ministerial Forum on IT and Education
From 9-11 December, Tunis is hosting the first African Ministerial Meeting on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Integration, Education, and Training. The forum is a joint endeavor of 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 (OIF) and Intel, under the auspices of Tunisia, through the country’s Ministry of Education.
The main aim of the Ministerial Meeting is to make Africa’s education ministers focus more on the integration of information and communication technology into the process of learning. The emphasis on technology-driven education is, according to many experts and observers, a key instrument for producing better human capital on the continent. The forum also promotes a network of public sector institutions and stakeholders in the field of education and training, as well as public-private partnerships between governments and industry and technology companies.
This unusual event brings together policymakers, experts, development partners and representatives of ICT private sector and civil society. Therefore, this ministerial forum has a potential to serve as a platform for both regional and intra-continental high-level policy dialogue and knowledge sharing on how to fully use the potential of the ICT integration in education through a variety of channels.
For instance, the forum aims to provide universal access to quality education and development opportunities to all Africans, equip learners with skills to empower them to become full actors of knowledge society, and promote an educational system of digital literacy and creativity which is necessary for Africa to build innovation capacity for the IT industry.
Moreover, the ministerial meeting is also supposed to create a setting for projects that can be potentially supported by the key partners of the event, or to roll out successful solutions or project models to other relevant countries.
