FORUM ON CHINA-AFRICA
Strategies for Educational Development
Address by Nigeria's Honourable Minister
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Fellow Ministers and Colleagues
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COOPERATION [FOCAC]
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and International Cooperation in
Developing Countries
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of Education: Mrs. Chinwe Nora Obaji -
at the Sino-African Education Ministers'
Forum
Beijing: China
27 November, 2005
Your Excellencies and Members
of the Diplomatic Corps
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:
Let me start by conveying to this august gathering the message of goodwill
and solidarity from my President: Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR and the
good people of Nigeria on this occasion. May I also express our sincere
appreciation to the government and people of the Peoples’ Republic of China
for the warm reception and hospitality accorded to us since our arrival
into this great country.
The year 2005 has witnessed the review and reaffirmation of commitments by
the international community towards global development, peace and security.
First of all, the African Union Ministers of Education met in Algiers and
agreed not only to accelerate the development and delivery of quality
Education for All, but to strengthen the role of education in the promotion
of regional and continental integration through bilateral, multilateral and
inter-institutional cooperation.
Secondly, the Africa Commission Report reinforced the focus on Africa at the
G8 Summit in which world leaders agreed to boost investment in health and
education and to take action to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
They further agreed to double aid for Africa as well as the cancellation of
debts owed by eligible Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and to strengthen the
African Partners’ Forum.
Thirdly, at the mid-term review of the MDGs at the UN General Summit, world
leaders again reinforced promises in the outcome document with particular
emphasis on ensuring that by 2015 all children have access to complete free
and compulsory primary education of good quality. This was in support of the
EFA Agenda in Africa, the Fast Track Initiative (FTI) and to assist FTI
countries to develop sustainable capacity and to identify the resources
necessary to pursue their educational strategies.
The year will however end with WTO meetings to be held in Hong Kong. The
challenges for that gathering will be the need to address the inequities in
trade and investment relations between the rich industrialised nations and
the weak and poor developing countries.
The recent UNESCO General Conference underscored the pivotal role of
Education, Science and Culture as critical success factors for sustainable
development. The trio reflects the concern of the global community that
a more effective development agenda with a focus on equitable distribution
of the earth’s resources is not only necessary and possible, but that it
should be relentlessly pursued by all countries.
Nigeria is fully committed to the pursuit of systemic reforms with a view
to improving the well-being of its citizens. In pursuant of this goal, the
National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS)
was born and the drive towards the attainment of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) was given acceleration.
Additionally my country is committed to working within multilateral agencies
to enhance progress towards all international development goals. However,
within the context of this commitment to global development, peace and security,
Nigeria is at the forefront of the march towards ensuring that Africa, under the
New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) Framework for Action, steers
Africa’s fight against poverty, diseases, HIV/AIDS and conflict. Nigeria is
equally committed to ensuring that our people are empowered to take their
rightful position to meaningfully contribute to the socio-economic development
of the continent.
Throughout the ages, educational strategies have been for the most part
country-specific, responding to national agenda, development needs and resources.
In fact, they need to continue to be national in order to reflect the commitment
of governments to meet the aspirations of their people in human resource
development. Increasingly, however, decisions made within the framework of the
UN and its organs have acknowledged the innumerable advantages associated with
viewing educational development as a global enterprise pursued through
inter-state and international collaboration. Indeed, this was also the
intention of General Assembly Resolution 33/134 of 1978, which mandated
support for the Promotion of Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries
(TCDC). A whole set of Resolutions, including Resolutions 46/155 that deal
with “The Challenge of the South”, were proposed to provide a framework for
increased collaboration between developing and developed countries in the
pursuit of development, including educational development. I assume that
this is the context for this meeting.
Of course, some countries have been able to nurture conditions that favour
progress through innovative processes and Information and communication
technology (ICT) in infrastructure. Without adequate arrangements for sharing
information on these innovative platforms, developing countries will be
constrained to waste enormous resources. Consequently, the establishment of
formal or informal networks, which makes it possible for education and policy
makers to share information on new strategies, should be seen as an important
strategy for promoting education development across the world.
On their part, international cooperation and collaboration among developing
countries themselves is an important cost-effective resource-sharing strategy
for promoting global educational change and development. This underscores the
establishment of UNESCO’s networks and institutes, which are mandated, not
only to study and advance the contents and methods of education but also to
exchange information, research findings and experimentation as well. The
recently established UNESCO Institute for Rural Education in China is a classic
example. Like China, Nigeria has a large rural population in dire need of support
for literacy training through basic education and skills acquisition. An
excellent opportunity therefore exists for collaboration between Nigeria and
China in this important area.
Recently, India has been using satellite technology to promote access to
educational opportunity to rural dwellers. Nigeria has a strong interest in
satellite technology and has recently launched its SAT1 dedicated largely to
geographical surveys and mapping. In the near future, we envisage some
collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Education and the Federal
Ministry of Science and Technology so that satellite technology will be
utilised in promoting access to a variety of education services, including
literacy and teacher training. Nigeria is therefore interested in sharing
experiences with India in this area.
It should be noted that Nigeria and China signed cultural and educational
relations in March 28, 1990. Since then, the two countries have enjoyed
cooperation in the area of computer education, scholarship exchanges, human
resources capacity building and University linkages. The most recent of
Nigeria’s cooperation with the Peoples Republic of China was sequel to the
visit of our President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to China in April 2005,
during which a bilateral accord was reached for the establishment of
cooperation and linkage between Peking University and Nigerian
Universities.
Bangladesh, another E-9 country, has for some years been experimenting with
school feeding as a means of improving retention rate as well as nutritional
status of pupils. I am happy to inform this august gathering that in September
this year, Nigeria launched its own Home Grown School Feeding Programme with
similar objectives. Here again, a base exists for exchanging collaboration and
experiences in educational development.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The associational benefits of educational collaboration between developed and
developing countries cannot be ignored. It is appropriate that we remind
ourselves that the Dakar World Education Forum envisaged a strong collaboration
between developed and developing countries with respect to the provision of
financial resources and technical support for the realisation of credible EFA
National Plans of Action. Efforts have been made with the EFA-FTI funding
proposal. However, this has not yielded the desired results in terms of adequate
and timely provision of resources to fund the many approved Action Plans for EFA
in many developing countries.
Nigeria will, with other members of the E-9, continue to advocate for stronger
resource contributions to educational development for developing countries. This
is the undertone of the Monterrey Consensus and the recently concluded Global
Summit in New York. We must all strive to be each other’s brothers’ keepers in
the quest for equitable education development in which the capacity of the
citizenry can flourish.
Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen, we are yet again presented with another
opportunity to move the development agenda forward. I urge all of us to
ensure that we do this with a renewed focus and vigour on Education and
in particular EFA, as the fast track means of achieving our goals on or
before 2015. With the largest cohort of youth the world has ever known,
success is not an option but an imperative.
Thank you for your attention.