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| African ministers told to “shelve” diplomacy when discussing crisis
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By Fred Cawanda,
PANA Correspondent
Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) -
World Bank (WB) Africa Region Vice President Obiageli Ez
ekwesili has urged African ministers to put diplomacy aside and engage in a fran
k
dialogue on efforts to counter the global economic slowdown.
“There is no room for diplomacy when it comes to discussing issues that are chal
lenging,'' Mrs Ezekwesili Wednesday told African Education and Finance ministers
meeting here over the impact of the current world crisis on the educational sect
o
r.
She said as the African ministers gathered in their Tunis conference of 15-17 Ju
ly on how to sustain the educational and
economic gains from the last decade, in the context of economic downturn, the Wo
rld Bank looked forward to a “rich
interaction” on the issue.
Mrs Ezekwesili told the African ministers she viewed the current global economic
and financial meltdown not as an impediment but
rather as an opportunity “to rethink strategies”.
She maintained there was an urgent need for a closer collaboration and a major c
oordination between the Ministers
of Finance and their colleagues of Education, especially when
it comes to budgeting for educational needs.
The WB official also suggested that as part of strategies to advance education i
n Africa, countries with poor records in the
sector should build on the experience of other nations on the continent which ha
ve performed better over the last years.
For example, she said, countries like Tunisia and Mauritius have done “extremely
well” in education in recent years and
could well serve as models for other nations whose performance still leaves much
to be desired.
The Tunis conference is a WB joint initiative with the African Development Bank
(AfDB) and the Association for the
Development of Education in Africa (ADEA).
It is also supported by donor partners of the Education for All Fast Track Initi
ative (EFA FTI), a worldwide
partnership launched in 2002 by the WB and development partners with the aim of
helping children in low-income
countries complete primary education by 2015.
According to the organisers, there is a shared understanding among them that the
re seems not to be enough dialogue and
coordination between the Ministers of Education and their colleagues of Finances
, especially on the structure of
expenditures in Education.
Mrs Ezekwesili explained that the tremendous progress which Tunisia had made in
Education over the last years was one of
the main reasons for choosing Tunis as the venue of the ministerial conference.
Education in Tunisia is compulsory and free from the ages of 6 to 16 and the law
provides for penalties when a child is not
enrolled in primary school or a child is withdrawn from school before the age of
16.
In 2005-2006, there were 178 public institutions of higher education in the coun
try, including 13 universities, 24 technological studies
institutes and six higher institutes of teachers training, according to officia
l figures.
Although the system is criticised at times for a high level of rigidity and cent
ralisation that leaves many students unsatisfied with the
discipline into which they may be placed, access to post-secondary studies is gu
aranteed to all successful secondary level students.
The latest United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report gives Tunisia an a
dult literacy rate of 75.3 per cent and a
combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary education of
76.3 per cent, in the country with a population of about
10.4 million inhabitants.
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| Tunis - 16/07/2009 |
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