ADDRESS BY DR. IGWE AJA-NWACHUKU,
NIGERIA'S HONOURABLE MINISTER
OF EDUCATION, CHAIRMAN, REGIONAL
EFA FORUM TO THE MID-TERM REVIEW
REGIONAL EFA FORUM, BAMAKO,
13 TO 14 SEPTEMBER, 2007

Your Excellency, Minister of Education, Mali,

Director of UNESCO/BREDA, Mme Lalla Aicha Ben
Barka, Distinguished EFA National Coordinator,

Representatives of Donor Agencies, Institutions and Partners,

Representatives of Non-governmental Organizations and Civil
Society, Gentlemen of the Press, Ladies and Gentlemen

It gives me great pleasure to address you at this very important forum taking place in the
historic city of Bamako. In 2005, we met in a similar forum in Dakar, tagged "Dakar+5" to
review progress made during the World Education Forum when decision makers representing 164
countries initiated a new course for education in the new millennium. This year, the Forum
is titled "Dakar+ 7 Regional EFA Forum" which is mid-term to 2015. It will provide the
opportunity to assess our progress especially as regards the EFA mechanisms and post
primary. It will enable us come up with future actions conducive to the attainment of
our objectives and strategies by 2015.

Your Excellency, Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, permit me to express my sincere
gratitude to the Director of UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Africa, Mme
Lalla Aicha Ben Barka who is not only saddled with the responsibility of organizing
this forum, but has also over the years systematically sustained UNESCO's tradition
of strong leadership in coordinating the Education for All process in the sub-region.

You recall that the World Conference on Education held in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990,
was an epoch-making event for the International Community because we resolved at that
forum to adopt a forward-looking vision for Education for All and endorsed a Framework
of Action to meet the learning needs of children and reduce illiteracy among youths
and adults.

When the social summit took place in Copenhagen in 1995, it had become clear that the
target set for 2000 for Education for All would not be realizable. This was due to
the deepening educational crises worldwide. Five years from that summit and ten years
from Jomtien, the end of decade assessment for EFA conducted by UNESCO
revealed the enormous challenges before the International Community towards the
attainment of the International Jomtien goals for EFA. This gave a new impetus
at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal in April 2000 when 164 countries
agreed to chart a comprehensive new course in achieving the six major goals.
These goals referred to as "Education for All goals" and adopted as the
Dakar Framework for Action provided strategies and clear actions and targets
for achieving EFA by 2015.

The Dakar Forum identified the intrinsic nature of Education as a Human Right as
underscored by the 2007 Global Week of Action and called for strong, active
involvement of leaders, Civil Society as well as political commitment at the
highest level, adequate financial support and an all out attack on poverty,
inequality, discrimination and exclusion.

However, it is important to note that the Millennium Development Goals agreed
upon by the UN in 2000 also include two EFA goals of UPE and eliminating
gender disparity in primary and secondary school as well as empowering women
by 2015. The MDGs have therefore reinforced the Dakar Framework of Action.
This shows that the achievement of EFA goals is a precondition for the
success of MDG objectives aimed at poverty reduction, human resource
development, capacity building, sustainable development and the
construction of an equitable world order.

The Dakar Framework provided strategies and initiatives which countries
in the sub-region have put in place to achieve the EFA goals. These
initiatives have influenced the continued global progress at primary
school level including girls in the area of school enrolment. However,
the EFA Global Monitoring Report of 2007 reveals that many children
enrolled in grade one drop out early or do not attain minimum learning
achievements. The report further added that by neglecting the linkages
between early childhood care, primary and secondary education and adult
literacy that countries are missing opportunities to provide basic
education across the board and contribute substantially to the GDP
of our developing economies.

This shows that even though access to primary education continues to
expand, retention and completion on the primary school cycle remains
a challenge. Many children drop out from school and this has increased
the number of out-of-school children. It is necessary that all
children enrolled in school, remain in school for a full primary
school cycle to master curriculum, acquire basic literacy and
numerical skills. If we are to achieve EFA by 2015 we need to know
how many of these children are out of school, why they are out of
school, and who they are. This implies that we should indepthly
look into the root causes of drop out in the school system and
proffer solution by introducing government policies that will
tackle issues such as exclusion.

With specific reference to gender, the first goal post set for
the eliminating of gender disparities in primary and secondary
education was 2005. You are all aware that most countries in
this sub-region missed that target date. The challenges of
gender issues in education still remain mostly at the expense
of the girls¡¦ child. Girls still face cultural barriers
concerning their roles in the home and in the society. Gender
stereotypes still exist in learning materials and too often
teachers¡¦ expectation of boys and girls are differing.
Countries should therefore go beyond gender parity and move
towards adapting public policies aimed at promoting gender
equality in education and to go beyond initiatives that focus
exclusively on enrolment ratio of equal boys and girls. This
underscores the need for high priority to be given to gender
education as an important tool in poverty eradication and
the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.

The 2005 Global Monitoring Report called for the quality
imperative of EFA and the need for systematic assessment
of children¡¦s learning out comes, curriculum and subject
based assessment. Furthermore, the World Bank Independent
Evaluation Group underscores the fact that countries have
paid high priority in increasing enrolment but have paid
less attention to the crucial issue of whether children
are learning adequately. Teachers remain critical for the
actualization of quality EFA but an undervalued resource
by many countries. Providing an education of good quality
means that countries should embark on programmes and
initiatives that will engender teacher-motivation and
incentive. Countries must increase the supply of teachers
by reforming teacher-training and training teachers to be
effective and deployed to where they are needed. Countries must
not succumb to a trade off between expansion and Quality
Disadvantage for addressing this challenge must be country
specific. Some countries need to strengthen their Education
Inspectorate Services in order to ensure that teachers actually
teach what are in the curricula under friendly pupil-teacher
environments.

The issue still remains that many teachers are needed to achieve
EFA but we need to determine the number by adapting to the
changing demographic patterns in school environment to guarantee
enough teachers for basic education by 2015. Consequently, in a
world increasingly reliant on higher levels of knowledge training
for successful social and professional integration, have made many
governments in this sub-region to focus on universal basic
education, rather than simply primary education as a medium
strategy object. As regards post-primary education, it is
important to look at education beyond primary years because of
high transition rates from the final grades of primary school to
lower secondary education. Demand for and participation in
secondary schools has been growing as many countries are making
good progress towards achieving UPE. It is pertinent to note
that secondary and tertiary education is part of EFA and
Millennium Development Goals of Gender parity and equality.
Furthermore, achieving UPE not only creates demand for higher
levels of education but also is itself dependent on progress
in secondary and tertiary education for adequate supply of
competent teachers and for sufficient secondary school places.
In spite of these initiatives, many countries still face huge
challenges in fulfilling their obligations to the global
agenda of EFA and the Millennium Development Goals.

This distressful situation is compounded by the stark realities
of HIV/AIDS and worsened by grinding poverty. With, the epidemic
growing in many countries, there is strong risk of AIDS which is
like a cankerworm eating into the fabrics of educational systems.
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, there is now huge momentum
towards achieving EFA Goals, especially the goal of UPE. It is
pertinent to note that this goal is unlikely to be met by 2015
unless efforts are reinforced and are accelerated. To do so, our
efforts should be intensified in the following areas:

Adopting a holistic approach to the attainment of all goals especially those
of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), adult literacy which has continued
to receive less attention than those of formal schooling.
Ensuring Quality at all levels so that children enrolled in primary schools acquire
basic learning skills and numeracy.
Ensuring Inclusive education so that children and adults who are marginalized or
excluded are enrolled in schools and adult literacy programmes.
Provisions of adequate qualified teachers for EFA through increased teacher supply and
reform of the teacher-training programmes.
The funding gaps in basic education should be provided as promised by the International
Community.
Strengthening partnership mechanisms with Civil Society in order to reach marginalized
groups, especially girls, through innovative approaches.
Provision of credible data and reliable information systems for basic education to enable
between strategic planning of scarce resources.
Strengthening the Inspectorate division of the post and basic education sub-sector of the
education system to ensure quality and friendly teacher/student environment conducive for
optimal learning.

Let me now use this opportunity, Your Excellency, Ladies and
Gentlemen, to make a few remarks in respect of Overseas
Development Assistance (ODA) while observing that national
leadership and ownership of EFA process is the key to
achieving EFA. It is important to note that our partners
in the International Community have undertaken to work in
a coherent manner in support of national EFA plans.
However, the performance of Aid since Dakar 2000, shows
that aid to basic education in low income countries has
fallen far short of what is estimated. Analysis of most
recent data shows that the overall support for basic
education from both multilateral and bilateral agencies
has been increasing in recent years but actual and pledged
levels of Aid to basic education remain insufficient given
the urgency of achieving EFA. This implies that Aid to
basic education in this sub-region must at least be
doubled and must include Aid for literacy and Early
Childhood Care and Education. While we acknowledge that
the commitment to partnership in many countries is
increasing, improving basic education through locally
developed solutions to complex challenges at the
grassroots has not received adequate attention. This
has resulted in funding for basic education remaining
limited to primary education, while we all agree that
Africa's needs go beyond UPE and are reflected clearly
in the EFA Framework. However, we are confident, that
the on-going global mapping of EFA partners' contributions will lead
to, in the words of the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr. Koichiro
Matsuura, "a greater degree of coherence and better complementary of
efforts". This will guarantee enhanced resources (both human and
financial) in order to meet the EFA challenges.

At this juncture, Your Excellency, ladies and gentlemen, we must ask our
development partners; to tell us: How can we move the EFA process
towards effective implementation of our national action plans; that are
deemed to be credible, when commitments made by our development partners
in Dakar 2000 "that no countries seriously committed to EFA will be
thwarted in their achievement of this goal by lack of resources", and
reaffirmed in the Monterrey Consensus; remain a far cry from being
redeemed. I wish to call on donors, to act now, in scaling up the
resources for the Fast Track Initiative (FTI) funding mechanism, which
although commendable in its intentions has not yet yielded the required
results to achieve EFA by 2015. It is against this background that
I urge our development partners to work genuinely with African
Governments in closing many disparities and gaps that continue to
keep us away from the achievement of EFA in Africa. It is therefore
an opportune moment, for us in the education sector at this meeting, to
articulate a strong voice that clearly links the provision of basic
education to eradication of poverty and further underscores the
integral nature of Education to the success of all the MDGs.

We should also emphasize the importance, especially in Africa of the
implementation of the wider EFA Agenda which goes beyond UPE to
address literacy, skills acquisition and the quality of education.
Finally, let us not forget that Education has a central role in the
transformation of our nations as many grapple with emerging democracies,
fighting corruption, ending and preventing conflict, all in a bid to
give our people their fundamental rights to a life of dignity. To this
end we must ensure that in so doing, a culture of reform evolves, that
takes into cognizance our heritage, culture and diversity; all of which
are our greatest strengths on this continent. The urgency today, of
delivering to our people a quality basic education cannot be
underestimated. We must ensure that we equip our youth with the necessary
skills to govern our societies and grow our economies lest we be saddled
with a future generation unable to either govern or be governed. I enjoin
you all, to bring together our synergies and continue to forge a
sustainable path to the achievement of the Dakar Goals by 2015. It is
achievable and we must in partnership with all key stakeholders accelerate
those actions at both national and international levels.

Your Excellency, ladies and gentlemen, once again I welcome you all to
this gathering of eminent men and women and wish us all, fruitful
deliberations. Thank you for your attention.

Igwe Aja-Nwachuku, Ph.D.
Honourable Minister of Education
Nigeria
13 September, 2007

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