By Landing Ceesay
The Gambia’s Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) is hosting the 3rd African Continental Conference on Curriculum.
The 3-day event is focusing on Education Technology and Curriculum alignment in the new era.
In her opening statement, Claudiana A. Cole, Minister of MoBSE said the conference represents one of the much-needed strategies for Africa and its respective education policies.
Minister Cole hopes that the Conference will provide a platform where participants would explore the potential of technology and innovations to enhance curriculum processes and products necessary for the acquisition of 21st Century competencies, knowledge and skills.
“Addressing the inequalities accentuated by the pandemic requires rigorous deliberations and coordinated efforts to align curriculum and related processes for teaching and learning in the technological era. Achieving the quality education envisaged depends on sustained dialogue and collaborations to share findings supported by research.
“An exciting week in which knowledge and lessons learned across Africa, are promised to participants, both face-to-face and virtually, exploring how to address the mismatch between the school curriculum, teacher education, and learning assessment, including the intended, the implemented, and the achieved curriculum,” Minister Cole told the participants.
The Minister stated that her Ministry is proud to be associated with the platform created to enable policymakers, practitioners and experts in the technological space, to engage in dialogue on strategies to address the challenges holistically.
Minister Cole then challenged the participants to discuss and find solutions to the challenges in the education sector.
Meanwhile, Momodou Jeng, Director of Curriculum at MoBSE said in 2008, the Gambia hosted a Conference on Curriculum that gathered educationists and curriculum experts from various parts of Africa to discuss and interrogate the kind of Basic Education Program for Africa that would respond to the development needs of the continent (BEAP).
“We are gathered here again this morning (Monday) in the smiling coast of The Gambia to discuss and share experiences and expertise on how to make curriculum content more relevant and responsive to the development challenges of the world in general and Africa in particular.
“These include climate change and its ramifications, youth unemployment, migration, extremism & violent conflicts and the Covid-19 pandemic. These challenges require thoughtful innovations and rethinking; especially with systems that relied for a long time only on the traditional face-to-face way of lesson delivery,” he said.
Mr. Jeng stated that the Education Technology and curriculum alignment as in the theme of this conference implies a paradigm shift in the teaching pedagogies, assessment, and examination designs and tools.
He is convinced that they are ready for these new challenges, thus, the reason for the gathering at Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Centre.
The Conference which started on Monday would be concluded on 26th May 2022.
Comments are closed.