Education ministers have approved plans to scale-up and mobilise resources in the Commonwealth.
Education ministers have approved plans to scale-up and mobilise resources in the Commonwealth. They endorsed proposals to roll out a new education policy and a curriculum framework to speed up progress towards the sustainable development goals during the Commonwealth’s Education Ministerial Action Group (EMAG) meeting. The committee also agreed to plans to increase the number and scope of Commonwealth scholarships.
Jerome Fitzgerald, Minister of Education in the Bahamas and Chair of EMAG, stressed that the group will remain committed to improving the quality and access to education in the Commonwealth.
“There are couple of items that we continue to look at which really are the bedrock of any education agenda. That’s equity across the board, quality, making sure education is relevant and having a plan in place so it is sustainable. Those are broad areas, and there are a lot of governance issues that come and undergird them that we have to continue push, to ensure that the political will is there to address these four core pillars.” said Mr Fitzgerald.
EMAG was established at the 19th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (19CCEM) in The Bahamas in 2015. It was set up to progress the commitments to improve education, made in the Nassau Declaration Action Plan. Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland praised the ministers for their focus on outputs and pledged to continue to support their efforts.
“We know that every country, developed and developing, is facing challenges, whether it is in guaranteeing consistently high levels of quality in every school and every classroom, or keeping up with rapidly changing technologies,” she said. “But we also have a lot of cutting edge initiatives happening in our member countries. When we meet, we can learn from each other and craft something which is powerful and a game changer for education in the Commonwealth.”
Ministers and senior officials from The Bahamas, Fiji, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritius, Namibia, St Lucia, the Solomon Islands and the UK attended the meeting. The ministers will continue their engagement in the run up to the 20th CCEM which is due to be held in Fiji next year.
