The 3rd Meeting of ACP Ministers of Education has been opened this Wednesday, 10^th April 2013 at the ACP House in Brussels under the theme “Reflecting on ACP Cooperation objectives in Education within the post-2015 Development Agenda”.

In his opening remarks to welcome the ACP Ministers of Education, the ACP Secretary General, H.E. Alhaji Muhammad MUMUNI has underlined, among all the education challenges ACP countries have to face, a crisis of relevance.

He deplored that “In spite of the considerable progress that has been made, the education sector still faces tremendous challenges. Child enrolment at the lower levels remains a challenge in several regions… The emphasis on white collar oriented education means that a good number of our youth are ill-equipped for the skills that will be needed in the highly competitive global economy that is emerging before us. Much of our pedagogy in higher education suffers from an acute crisis of relevance… Research and innovation do not feed into wealth-creation. This situation is further compounded by an increasing exodus of skilled human capital from ACP to the developed world. We therefore have a challenge to institute strategies and incentives for the retention and return of our highly skilled nationals.”

One of the items in the agenda of the ministerial meeting was a roundtable with invited guest from institutions and civil society on “The challenges and strategies of positioning Education in the post-1015 Development agenda in ACP states”.

At the opening session of the ministerial meeting, the European Commission was represented by its Director General for Education and Culture, Mr Jan TRUSZCZYNSKI and the Global Partnership for Education by its Chairperson, Mrs Caroll BELLAMY.