The National Education Forum will open in the Volta Regional capital, Ho, today.
About 300 stakeholders in the education and related sectors will participate in the forum on the theme: “Transforming education for a sustainable future”.
The opening session will be attended by various interest groups in the education sector, including educationists, lecturers, teachers, parents, students and civil society organisations.
President John Dramani Mahama, who mooted the idea, is expected to open the forum.
Engagements
The engagements will climax with a two-day validation conference in Accra on Thursday and Friday.
The Ho event is the first zonal engagement for the Volta and Oti regions before being extended to the other regions.
“At the end of the engagements, we expect that a consensus document summarising stakeholder discussions and recommendations will have been developed.
“We also expect that a thematic action plan for implementing whatever reforms that would be coming out of the engagement would have been decided on firmly. Lastly, we will draft a framework for national education policy,” the Chairman of the Planning Committee of the forum, Prof. K.T. George Oduro, told journalists.
Other means of participation
He said the committee had set up an online engagement platform where individuals, particularly the young ones, were responding, adding that as of last Thursday, “I got information that over 1,000 people have submitted memos on the five key pillars, which are: Education Infrastructure, Educational Quality Provision, Regulation, Accountability and Governance, Education Financing, and Research and Data.
“We have also set up a virtual engagement for those who will not be able to attend the launch so they will engage with us,” Prof. Oduro said.
Validation conference
Prof. Oduro said key issues emerging from the stakeholder engagements would be presented to other stakeholders at the validation conference, the majority of whom were development partners.
He explained that the development partners would identify which of the issues raised fell within their plans to provide support.
“So, we use that validation workshop to engage development partners. It will also be used to engage stakeholders to come out and accept whatever implementation decision that will come out of the engagement,” Prof. Oduro explained.
He stressed the need for the right human capital to take up responsible positions, saying, “We need quality people, and that can be achieved only when we provide them with quality education in the context of equity.
“We need quality people who will develop quality issues and come out holistically developed,” the chairman of the committee stressed.
Source:- graphic.com
