A clarion call has been made to Africans in the diaspora to come back home with their expertise to help put in place policies and programmes to transform the African economy.
The Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, who made the call said, with the current state of affairs on the African continent, there was a need for Africans to take their destiny into their hands and shape the future of the continent.
Dr Adutwum made the call in his closing remarks at the World Bank Ministerial meeting on Education for Western and Central African Finance and Education Ministers in Accra.
He explained that although hundreds of Africans were working outside the continent, there was an urgent call for such people to consider bringing back their expertise to support the transformation of their home countries.
“We cannot be left out of the Africans transformation agenda. If we come together we can change this continent. We better change this continent now for the good of the unborn generation”. Dr Adutwum said.
Again he said, “If we do not change Africa, our image in the world would not change. The lamentation time is over now, we need to start working towards the transformation of our nations through education”. The Education Minister stated.
Dr Adutwum who is the Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe challenged Africans to take away the African mediocrity syndrome which makes people compare themselves to other African countries instead of comparing themselves with developed countries.
Role of education
Dr. Adutwum stated that no African country can develop without the transformation of its education system.
“We can only transform our vicious cycle of poverty to a virtous cycle of prosperity through education.
Let’s all help change the African dream and African nightmare. We have to come together and share ideas and experiences like we have done today else prosperity would elude us”. He said
The Education Minister mentioned the proper training of teachers to at least a degree as the lowers requirement, building more schools to expand access for your countries and the introduction of a curriculum that meets the needs of the nation’s job market among others were some of the measures that could help change the African story.
He charged African leaders to create a platform for leaders of the various facets of their countries to come together and share ideas, and experiences and learn from each other to propel the development of the continent.
Background
The well-packed and well-attended conference brought together Education and Finance Ministers from 22 Western and Central African countries to Accra to discuss and adopt a new education strategy being promoted by the World Bank to enhance learning outcomes.
The conference was designed to stimulate action, thus highlighting key findings of the World Bank Africa Western and Central Education Strategy which starts from 2022 to 2025.
It would be focussing on increasing the human capital through quality education in the two sub-regions.
Source: Ayisah Foster/Broadcastergh.com
