A Technical Workshop on Educational Planning and Economic
Development organised by the UNESCO International Institute for Capacity
Building in Africa (UNESCO-IICBA) was held in Dakar from 29 to 31 January
2003 . The workshop was attended by experts, education planners and
economists from the public and private sectors from West and Central
Africa, and representatives from institutions (ADEA, UNESCO-IIPE, CODESRIA,
ECA etc…).
Background
At present, most educational planners in Africa do not
have a sound grounding in economics. Education plans have been made
and implemented without taking into account the economic realities,
possibilities, constraints and aspirations of their countries or regions.
This programme "Education Planning and Economic Development in
Africa" is aimed at providing educational planners in Ministries
of education in Africa with a sound grounding and a basic understanding
of economic principles that are applicable to their work as educational
planners.
It
is also essential for economic planners to take into account the realities
and visions of education in their economic planning. Thus, this programme
also focuses on providing basic education concepts for economic planners.
One of the initial phase is to launch a master's degree
courses on economics for educational planners and on education for economists.
For the former, a complete master's degree programme will be developed.
For the latter, a few modules on basic concepts for educational planning
will be developed which will be integrated into the existing master's
degree programmes for economists.
Context
and Future Plan
The Dakar workshop will enable to finalise the draft modules
outlines for educational planners and economic planners which were elaborated
during at the Addis Ababa workshop in June 2002.
On the basis of the drafts to be finalized during the Dakar workshop,
training modules will be developed ed by consultants and/or institutions
that will implement the master's programme.
Activities of the workshop
During the Dakar workshop, the participants will :
