African teachers call for investment

GHANA – Representatives of Educational International (EI) member organisations meeting in Accra recently called upon their governments to invest in early childhood education. This call was made at a seminar organised by EI in Accra, Ghana.

The seminar, entitled “Quality Early Childhood Education: Every Child’s Right”, was attended by representatives of EI member organisations from 14 countries in Africa, members of the EI’s Early Childhood Education Task Force and representatives of teacher unions in Europe, and UN agencies and partners from civil society.

The seminar started with opening remarks from Portia Anafo, Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) vice president, and a welcome address by EI vice president and president of EI Africa Region, Irene Duncan Adanusa. In her welcome address, Duncan Adanusa, highlighted EI’s commitment to ECE, as stated in the 1998 Congress Resolution.

The event was officially opened by the minister of education in Ghana. In his opening address, he highlighted Ghana’s ECE policy and programmes, particularly the comprehensive and multi-sectoral nature of the programme.

The minister urged governments in Africa and elsewhere to prioritise ECE in their planning and budgeting.

Dennis Sinyolo, EI senior co-ordinator for education and employment, highlighted EI’s policy on education and ECE, which stresses that education, including early childhood education, is a basic human right and a public good, secured by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

He went on to summarise the main provisions of the 1998 Congress Resolution some of which are that:

1.    ECE should be part of basic education;

2.    be provided free of charge to all children; and

3.    ECE staff should have the same status and conditions of service as other teachers.

The participants noted that ECE was becoming a priority in many African countries and that the services provided were usually comprehensive. However, a lot still remained to be done.

Access was still very low in many African countries and most services remained in the hands of private providers and funders, with little funding provided by public authorities. There is generally a serious shortage of qualified teachers in this sector and under representation of male teaching staff.