Ministers and education officials from across the East African Community (EAC) have committed to expanding regional co-operation to address severe learning gaps, teacher shortages, and cross-border system barriers.
The commitment was made during the opening of the 2nd EAC Regional Education Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, which gathered over 600 delegates, policymakers, and civil society leaders from the eight partner states; Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Delivering the opening address on behalf of the Kenyan presidency, Cabinet Secretary for EAC Affairs Beatrice Askul Moe called for a major shift in how regional education systems accommodate mobile populations and support educators.
“As regional integration deepens, our systems must become more interoperable,” Askul said. “A child moving between partner states should not have their education interrupted because they crossed a border. Curriculum transformation without teacher transformation cannot succeed. As a region, we should regard our teachers not simply as employees of national systems, but as a community of East African professionals.”
The conference also heard calls from the Chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers, Rebecca Kadaga, for the alignment of national curricula and qualifications frameworks to facilitate student and skilled labor mobility across borders.
EAC Deputy Secretary-General Ariik Malueth noted that key frameworks are moving closer to adoption, including the EAC Technical and Vocational Education and Training Qualifications Framework, designed to ensure skills are recognized across the entire bloc.
–ChannelAfrica/EAC–
