10 resolutions to support education in East Africa

Dar es Salaam. Education leaders and researchers from Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda have agreed to implement at least 10 resolutions that will give the education systems ability to withstand disasters that pose a threat to continuity of learning.

One of the resolutions set is investment in ICTs and encouraging the professional development of teachers in Information Technology. This would build the teachers’ ability to make students stay on course when disasters occur.

The education leaders have also agreed to invest more in Early Childhood Education (ECD), a step that will help prepare children to adapt to modern ways of learning, including remote learning. Also, the heads of institutions and education departments, emphasized the issues of education budgets to be increased as a way to strengthen resilience in the sectors, among others.

The decisions were reached during the fourth Regional Education Conference on ‘Building Resilient Education Systems beyond Crises’, organized by the Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED), East Africa.

The development, they said, was based on the reality that the Eastern African region suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic, with education and social sector services interrupted and learning stopped for a duration of time.

The head of research at AKU, Prof Fredrick Mtenzi told The Citizen yesterday that the impact of Covid-19 on the education delivery system had forced them to come up with research based solutions for future preparedness.

He said the research conducted through the project reveals that teachers were a critical group that needed to be empowered.

“Teachers should have the ability to access and use ICTs and this is the way that will enable us to create sustainable education systems,” he said.

For his part, AKU-IED Dean, Dr Jane Rarieya, said that in addition to investing in ICT, countries also needed to focus mostly on ECD.

“If we forget about early education, we cannot succeed. It’s not only in the matter of teaching but also in preparing teachers to teach with passion and consider all the methods to make children enjoy schooling,” she said.

“In our countries, ECD teachers are not given priority when in reality they are the ones who prepare children and if they do not do their job well, there is a possibility that the future results would deteriorate…,” she added.

The director of special education from Tanzania, Dr Magreth Matonya, said the government has distributed tablets to teachers in parallel with developing a digital exam marking system (e-Marking).

“We have agreed to invest in ICTs in our countries among other resolutions, and already for us (Tanzania) have started taking steps including distributing tablets to teachers and have a digital system for reading books (e-book),” she said.

The three East African countries also agreed to build and foster inclusive and meaningful partnerships at all levels including Public Private Partnerships (PPP) across East Africa and open-ended, flexible, and responsive educational systems.

They also promised to work across social sectors, particularly education and health, with water and sanitation (WASH), social protection and governance to mitigate the effects of disasters, emergencies, and unforeseen disruptions.