PORT HARCOURT HOSTS:: BRACED EDUCATION SUMMIT 15-17th NOV

EFFORTS to revive the education sector in Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo and Delta (the BRACED states) will get a boost at a November 15-17, 2012 summit in Port Harcourt.

Former World Bank Vice President for Africa, Oby Ezekwesili, will deliver the keynote at the event which is being facilitated by the BRACED Commission.

A statement by the commission’s director-general, Ambassador Joe Keshi, said the summit would attract the brightest and the best in the nation’s education sector as well as corporate entrepreneurs including Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, the Group Managing Director of Access Bank, Tonye Cole, the Chief Executive Officer of Sahara Group and Tony Elumelu, the Chairman of Heirs Holding.

The oil-bearing BRACED states were noted for academic and sporting excellence  but the general drop in the quality of education in the country also took its toll on them.

The Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufai and the Minister of State, Nyesom Wike, as well as the Vice Chancellor of the  University of Cape Coast, Ghana, Professor Domwini Kuupole, would be special guests.

Also attending are Minister of Science and Technology,  Prof Ita Okon Bassey Ewa, eminent mathematician and former University of Benin vice-chancellor Professor Alele Williams and  Dr Enase Okonedo of the Lagos Business School among others.

Keshi said the summit would help the BRACED states’ governors, school administrators and other stakeholders to compare notes on the way forward for the sector.

“The conference will therefore review the state of basic, secondary and technical vocational education, higher education, teachers’ education and training of teachers, in addition to reviewing the standard of science and technology education”, he said.

The event, a sequel to two successful economic summits by the commission, would also have in attendance commissioners for education of the BRACED states and their permanent secretaries, vice-chancellors of all the universities in the region, rectors of colleges of education and polytechnics, deans of faculties of Education of universities, principals of colleges and headmasters of primary schools, teachers associations, chairmen of states Universal Basic Education Commission (SUBEC), faith-based educational organisations, NGOs in the education sub-sector as well as donor agencies.

Part of the envisaged outcomes of the summit would include: Producing a common education policy/initiative for the BRACED states; regional science and technology policy; improve and strengthen the content of basic education; reach an agreement to revive and encourage technical and vocational education by transforming the curriculum of technical and vocational schools to foster efficient applications of technology; development of Professional Teaching Competencies/Standards for Pre and in-service teachers in the BRACED states; joint establishment of monitoring criteria for certification and re-certification, including induction and mentoring programmes for teachers.

Source ; the Guardian