ECOWAS, NAE partner on quality of education for member states

The Nigerian Academy of Education (NAE) has expressed readiness to partner with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to lift the quality of education at all levels in the sub-region.

President of NAE, Professor Elizabeth Eke, who disclosed this in a statement yesterday, said the collaboration would promote cooperation, exchange and support among ECOWAS member states.

Eke said the cooperation will be hinged on competence, priority and availability of required resources to ensure that the standard of education in West Africa becomes one of the best globally.She added that it would concentrate on higher education and training; youth, gender development and empowerment; language immersion; information and experience sharing; regional integration; academic mobility and related activities.

“This partnership makes it easy for us to facilitate exchange of information and documents of common interest that will ultimately lead to improved standards of education in West Africa,” she said.

She also disclosed that education stakeholders in the West African sub-region would converge on Abuja for the inaugural edition of the West Africa Education Conference from October 8-12, 2018. 

The meeting, she revealed, will be attended by President Muhammadu Buhari, who is Chairman of ECOWAS, while the keynote address will be delivered by United Nations (UN) Under Secretary for West Africa, Muhammad Ibn Chambas, just as Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu and NAE will be hosts.

Eke added the meeting will be the first time West African countries will be coming together under one roof to discuss common issues, as they affect the standard of education in the sub-region.

“The conference, to be hosted in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, will provide ECOWAS member countries the opportunity to deliberate on common educational issues like access to education, funding, shortage of teachers, infrastructure problems and education of displaced children, among others, with a view to proffering solutions to them,” she stated.