Education Minister Takes Centre Stage At World Education Forum

Professor  Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang , Minister of Education, is leading a high powered government delegation to the World Education Forum scheduled for Incheon, Republic of Korea, from May 19-22.

A statement issued by the ministry and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Thursday said, the delegation comprises of Mr Enoch H. Cobbinah, the Chief Director, Ministry of Education, Mr Jacob Kor, the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Mr Stephen Adu, the Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, and Prof Yaw Ankomah, the Chairman of the Education Committee of the Ghana National Commission for United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

The 2015 World Education Forum is led by the UNESCO in collaboration with six co-conveners: United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Population Fund, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations Children’s Fund, UN Women and the World Bank Group.

The forum would review the performance of the Education for All (EFA) goals (2000 – 2015) set in Dakar in 2000 by the international community, and set the new global education agenda for the next fifteen (15) years (2015 – 2030).

The six EFA goals agreed on in Dakar are to expand early childhood care and education; provide free and compulsory primary education for all; promote learning and life skills for young people and adults; and to increase adult literacy by 50 per cent.

The rest are to achieve gender parity by 2005, gender equality by 2015 and to improve the quality of education.

Ghana’s delegation is taking part in discussions on the five key themes of the conference, namely right to education, equity in education, inclusive education, quality education, and lifelong learning.

The Minister of Education in a high-level panel discussion at the opening plenary on Tuesday, spoke on the theme, “Rethinking education: Towards a global common good?”

She spoke extensively on Ghana’s progress in the pursuit of the Education for All goals, particularly in the area of early childhood care and education, where UNESCO has cited Ghana as having achieved significant results, as well as improvement in access and participation across all the levels of education in the country.

She further shared government’s forward-looking post-2015 education agenda, and elaborated on improving equitable access to and participation in quality education at all levels, and improving quality of teaching and learning, especially in mathematics and science.

The others are improving management of education service delivery with focus on efficiency, and strengthening and rebranding technical and vocational education and training to make it more responsive to the world of work.