ADEA and Botswana’s Ministry of Basic Education launch the Inter-Country Quality Node on Secondary Education

Published on Thursday, 18 March 2021

The Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) in partnership with Botswana’s Ministry of Basic Education (MOBE) officially launched the Inter-Country Quality Node on Secondary Education (ICQN-SE) on 9th March 2021.

The launch of the ICQN on Secondary Education was intended to raise awareness and publicity for the Botswana-led ICQN and share the latest transformation strides on reforms “Outcome Based Education and its associated pathways” in Botswana.

The event saw the participation of ministers of education, country representatives and senior government officials from Angola, Burkina Faso, Côte d’lvoire, e-Swatini, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Libya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Representatives of the ADEA Secretariat, key partners including the Mastercard Foundation and the Africa Development Bank Group, academia, civil society, and education stakeholders were also in attendance.

By presenting ADEA’s role and its current main activities – including the KIX Observatory on COVID-19 responses in Africa’s Education System – Albert  Nsengiyumva, Executive Secretary of ADEA, underscored the importance of making this new ICQN an efficient continental platform for boosting the dialogue around secondary education as this subsector is crucial to achieving the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the United Nations 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.

In his speech, Hon. Fidelis M. Molao, Minister of Basic Education made a call to African Countries to join the ICQN-SE and collaborate to transform Secondary Education in Africa. He highlighted that the advent of Outcome-Based Education and the introduction of educational pathways dovetails well with the hosting of ICQN Secondary Education by the Ministry of Basic Education in Botswana. 

The Hon Minister further highlighted that the ICQN Secondary Education will play a meaningful role in supporting the Ministry’s Transformation Agenda, as well as in assisting Botswana to become a thought leader on issues of Secondary Education. The African community stands to benefit from this noble gesture as we all need to share experiences and improve the learning outcomes. The new Inter-Country Quality Node as an arm of ADEA is a forum for policy dialogue on secondary education. The overall objective of the ICQN-SE is to support ministries of education to take the lead in developing and implementing transformative policies and strategies for improving the delivery of secondary education policies in Africa. The ICQN will also focus on promoting good practices in priority areas as pointed out in the Mastercard Report on secondary education in  Africa such as teacher professional development, integration of ICT in teaching and learning, introducing demand-driven technical and vocational skills, strengthening learning assessment, among others.  

Ramatlala Mogomotsi, ICQN-SE Coordinator in his presentation highlighted that membership to the ICQN-SE is open to all African countries facing common or shared challenges. Indeed, one country can be a member of more than one ICQN depending on the country’s needs. Ramatlala further stated that a country wishing to join the ICQN-SE shall indicate its interest by writing a formal letter to Botswana, requesting to be a member of the ICQN, and also indicating its formal commitment to actively participate in the activities of the Node. 

James McIntyre, Mastercard Foundation Program Lead for Education and Skills in West, Central, and North Africa in his remarks mentioned that “the Mastercard Foundation Report on Secondary Education has recently shown that a large portion of the youth population is progressing in secondary education and the enrollment rate is increasing. McIntyre further mentioned that secondary education is widely becoming the key platform from which the majority of young people will acquire the skills, knowledge, and competencies they need to succeed in a dynamic and globalized labor market where trends of digitalization and automation are on the rise. 

Today, there is an urgent need to address challenges in terms of access, quality, and relevance of secondary education in Africa. To this end, a platform like the new ICQN-SE will help in bringing together the different education stakeholders in promoting dialogue and supporting joint problem-solving approaches through a collective effort.

 

The video of the launch is available here: https://youtu.be/nu2gB7XN1n0

 

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About ADEA

The Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) is the voice of education in Africa and a key network of Education Ministries. It plays a significant role in the education space as a convener, knowledge creator and forum for policy dialogue, working through its Inter-Country Quality Nodes (ICQNs) and the Task Force on Education Management and Policy Support. ADEA contributes to the empowerment of African countries to develop quality education and training systems that respond to the countries' emergent needs and drive social and economic transformation sustainably. http://www.adeanet.org