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Addressing the Global Learning Crisis – UNESCO launches the Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report (GMR) 2013/14 and the “Quality Teachers for EFA” project in Namibia
UNESCO, in collaboration with the Namibian Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Faculty of Education of the University of Namibia (UNAM) officially launched the Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report (GMR) 2013/14 “Teaching and Learning: Achieving Quality for All” and the project “Enhancing Teacher Education for Bridging the Education Quality Gap in Sub-Saharan Africa” in Namibia under the Funds-in-Trust agreement between UNESCO and the Government of the People’s Republic of China. This official launch was held on Monday, 24 February 2014 at 17:00h in the UNAM main hall, and was honoured by the presence of the Honourable Minister of Education, Dr David Namwandi and the UNESCO Assistant Director General of Education, Dr Qian Tang.
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Dr. Tang presented an overview of the GMR, which is an independent publication commissioned by UNESCO on behalf of the international community, that monitors each year the global progress towards the six EFA goals. Dr. Charmaine Villet, dean of the faculty of Education reacted to this by reflecting the global issues in a Namibian context. Also the policy perspective, as well as the teacher and learner perspective towards these issues, were heard, by words of Dr. Hertha Pomuti, Director of National Institute for Educational Development (NIED), Mr. B. Haingura, Secretary General of the Namibia National Teachers’ Union (NANTU), Mr. M. Kavihuha, President of the Teachers’ Union of Namibia (TUN) and Ms. Emma Teofillus Junior Mayor of the City of Windhoek.
After this discussion, the UNAM choir initiated a shift from the GMR to the UNESCO/Chinese-Funds-in-Trust project, which is a project implemented on the same thematic note of investing in teachers and teacher training institutions for bridging the education quality gap. The main goal of the overall project is to support the capacity development needs of eight African countries in relation to teacher education and professional development. Namibia is one of the initial three countries to benefit from this support. During the preliminary phase of the project in Namibia, a needs assessment exercise was conducted to define the nature and intensity of activities to be carried out within the country specific context. Based on this assessment, a national team of education experts, steering the design of the project, agreed to focus the interventions on improving the capacity of teacher educators to train students and teachers in teaching literacy and numeracy in pre- and lower primary. The project implementation has already started, and a first training workshop, bringing together relevant stakeholders from all regions in Namibia, was held in Windhoek in the same timeframe as the launch, from 23 to 25 February.
Dr. Tang officially launched the project, where after Ms. Sandra Van Zyl, Director of Higher Education in the Ministry of Education, set out the key elements of the project. Since China is the main donor of the project, Mr Li Yigang, Deputy Chief of Mission of the People’s Republic of China delivered his remarks on the Funds-in-Trust Agreement with UNESCO and the specific focus of the project in Namibia. The Minister of Education, Hon. Dr. David Namwandi closed this launching event by commenting on both the issues raised in the GMR and the UNESCO/CFIT project which is currently being implemented in Namibia. He appreciated the issue of a global learning crisis and also highlighted at the same time the government’s consistent emphasis on education through the allocation of close to 25% of the national budget to education.
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| Publication Date |
15 Mar 2014 |
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