Global forum on education begins in Nairobi

Education players have converged in Nairobi for the Education Innovation Africa forum that seeks to address the future of the crucial sector. The forum’s main focus will be on developing innovative partnership models to improve education in Sub-Saharan Africa, with particular focus on East Africa.

Bringing together Ministries, investors, innovators, educators and solution providers, the event promotes and facilitates private sector engagement in improving education outcomes in early years, higher and further education.

In the two day event, experts will be discussing the future of skills development, the role of the private sector in education and innovation in technology integration at Education Innovation Africa at the Visa Oshwal Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. 

Technology is seen as a key enabler of this shift.  Not only does it allow students to learn the IT skills required in much of today’s work, but it also enables teachers to individualize and tailor the content to individual learners’ needs, creating personalized learning journeys. 

Tablet were seen to have the potential, to have the greatest impact on such development. The results of recent programmes such as eLimu, which provides tablets to primary schools pre-loaded with KCPE content are already proving the efficacy of such programmes.

Dr Pablo Fetter, CEO of GEMS Africa said technology provided the quickest way to improve a curricula.

“By enabling the availability of curricula in an online form it allows a faster cycle of improvement.  For example, a teacher can deliver a lesson, receive feedback, amend it based on this feedback and improve the next lesson delivered,” he said.

“This can only be done if you have a very dynamic environment which is supported by strong technological infrastructure, the availability of online content and also of tablets and other devices in order to support both teachers and students.”

Increased engagement from the private sector is seen as the final enabler of such a transformation.  Partnerships between industry and education as well as greater investment capital for innovative new skills provision businesses were touted as new opportunities to drive this growth. 

The forum comes against the backdrop of the plan by the Ministry of Education, Science & Technology in conjunction with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) current undertaking of a comprehensive curriculum reform set to help learners to meet the requirements of the dynamic employment market on a domestic and global level. 

The Ministry expects that the resulting curriculum will be able to help learners to meet the requirements of the dynamic employment market on a domestic and global level.  Given the significant changes in skills required not only by employers, but also by individuals to contribute to society as citizens.

Julia Moffett Director of Innovation, Equity Group Foundation and Founder of the Future of Learning Fund said  critical social skills should also be taught.

“Teamwork, problem solving, critical and independent thinking are all necessary in the world of work, but rarely taught in schools.”

Wairimu Njage, Director of Rusinga Group of Schools echoed the sentiments saying that education should not be just about exams.

“The focus should be on skill acquisition not just content or knowledge acquisition. There is need for practical, hands on project based creativity and innovation that encourages transference of knowledge into problem solving solutions that address the challenges facing communities.  Local and international curricula will increasingly have to place emphasis on children’s banks of knowledge and build on that (moving from the known to the unknown) as opposed to imposing content for exam purposes only’” she said.

She also said a good curriculum should also include ‘environment-as-a-school’ programmes as most learning will take place outside the classroom and textbooks.

At the forum, experts called for adequate training and support for teaching staff as it was key to this shift. Sandeep Aneja, Founder of Kaizen Private Equity states said technology would not replace teachers but rather made tteachers indispensable to the learning process.

“With access to free or cost effective learning content now becoming universal, the role of the teacher is going to evolve and become more important than ever,” he said.  

The event is organised by Informa Exhibitions which delivers trade and consumer exhibitions across the globe through face to face and digital channels to enable communities to engage, experience and do business.

Reference : www.nation.co.ke