A four-day Consultative and Training Workshop on Teacher Policy Development and Implementation, organised by the International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA) for the countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) opened in the Alisa Hotel, Accra, Ghana, on 4 July 2011.
The workshop has brought together high level teacher education and development personnel from fourteen of the fifteen ECOWAS countries. The four-day workshop is intended to create a forum for the discussion of teacher issues in the sub-region, and to introduce the TTISSA Methodological Guide that UNESCO developed, in cooperation with its partners, to diagnose teacher issues in sub-Saharan Africa.
The workshop was opened with the speech of the Minister of Education of the Republic of Ghana, Honourable Betty Mould-Iddrisu, read out by her representative, Mr. Charles Aheto-Tsegah, Deputy Director of the Ghana Education Service. In her speech, the Honourable Minister highlighted the need to:
- provide a framework for developing standards for teachers and the teaching profession in order to foster the development of a world-class teacher capable of contributing significantly to the human capital development;
- provide guiding principles for teacher management in ways that motivate excellence in teacher performance and commitment to life-long learning;
- provide areas for setting regulatory standards to govern teachers’ work and living conditions in order to make teaching an attractive and rewarding career thereby reducing teacher agitation on the continent.
The Secretary General of the Ghana National Commission for UNESCO, Mme Sylvia Lutterodt also made a speech on the occasion, emphasising the positive role UNESCO, through its institutions such as IICBA, is playing to build the capacity of African Member States in the education sector in general and in teacher related issues in particular.
The goodwill message of the director of IICBA, Mr. Arnaldo Nhavoto, was also read at the opening.
Mr. Nhavoto, in his speech, stressed the importance of working closely with countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and pledges to strengthen IICBA's outreach in the region Mr. Tirso Dos-Santos, Acting Director of the UNESCO Accra Cluster Office, chaired the opening session.
IICBA organised the workshop in line with its new orientation of working at the level of the Regional Economic Communities to align its activities with the structure of the African Union. The workshop ends on 07 July 2011.