Skip to main content

AU COMMISSIONER FOR ESTI VISITS THE KENYAN MINISTRY OF EDUCATION ON 26 APRIL 2022

|   PAU

Nairobi: Kenya: Following his visit to the Pan African University Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation (PAUSTI), the AU Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (ESTI), H.E. Prof. Mohammed Belhocine, visited the Ministry of Education on 26 April 2022. The honorable Minister was ably represented by HE Ambassador Simon Nabukwesi, Principal Secretary, working at the State Department for University Education and Research, who extended a warm welcome to the Commissioner and his delegation.

The Ministry of Education of Kenya is made up of four state departments including: Vocational and Technical Training; Early Learning and Basic Education; University Education and Research; Post Training and Skills Development. It is committed to Quality Education, Training, Research, Science, Technology and Innovation for sustainable development.

Taking the floor during this meeting, the Commissioner acknowledged and appreciated the great support provided by the Government of Kenya to PAUSTI. He proceeded by briefing his host on the admission this year, of 120 new students from 41 nationalities at PAUSTI, highlighting the real panafrican nature of the Institute. He also mentioned the various patents PAUSTI students have been granted for their innovative research works.

He further raised the issue on the need for an international students’ hostel and pleaded for more government assistance in this respect. Mentioning the crisis between Russia and Ukraine, he said the world in general and Africa in particular is going to face food and energy crisis. Thus, he said the continent had to appropriately respond to that. The role of research and innovation is crucial, especially in agriculture, to ensure food security. He also presented the key programmes of the Department for ESTI, focusing among others on jobs for the youth, which should come up from TVET. With regard to continental sharing, he further emphasized that Africa will also have to move forward by learning from Kenya’s experience. In this light, he talked about the Skills Initiative event, which is a professional skills competition that recently took place in Namibia, with the best competitors to represent Africa in Shangaï by the end of the year.

He added that there is need to look at program curricula and collect data on the job markets in Africa. Concerning early childhood and basic education, he highlighted the way the African Union faced the pandemic and its impact and suggested ways to catch up as he said, there were a lot of drop offs.

Moreover, he revealed that one of the priorities of his Department will be to strengthen the teaching of mathematics at the primary level. To this end, he said there is a need to strengthen training of Trainers in mathematics at the continental level, based on relevant pedagogy methods and tools to make sure mathematics are well taught at the primary level, which is more of a necessity in a world increasingly governed by science and technology covering fields as diverse as computer science, robotics, artificial intelligence, space science etc.

In turn, Ambassador Simon Nabukwesi, said Africa must believe in best practices. With regard to the construction of a students’ hostel, he welcomed the idea and pointed out the need to raise funds at the national level to support this project, which he said, will gather students from various nationalities and foster interculturality at PAUSTI. In the mid-term, he said, suggestions shall be made to competent authorities and solutions shall be found for the construction of the said hostel. But, he also suggested to contact the African Institute for Capacity Development (AICAD), which is an international organization, located at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), also hosting PAUSTI, to discuss modalities to host PAUSTI students in their rooms on a temporary basis.

With regard to the current crisis between Russia and Ukraine, he said Africa should be able to anticipate its negative impact, deploring by the way, how the continent was unable to anticipate the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the field of education, which was seriously negatively impacted with closed schools which thereafter led to forced marriages for girls, early pregnancies and school drop outs.  

He further raised the issue of adapting training to the needs of the job market. Acknowledging that unemployment rate is high in Africa, he believed that TVET must be tailored and AUC stands as a guide for Member States in this regard.

Regarding the issue on strengthening teaching of mathematics, Amb. Nabukwesi thought that is more of a methodological issue. Quoting the experience of Japan, he said, this country has been developing teaching manuals which make mathematics easier to understand, providing solid skills acquisition from basic school. He opined that Africa could draw inspiration from such examples from other countries and set up groups of researchers who could reflect on this issue. He ended by reiterating the support of the Government of Kenya to PAUSTI.

The President of the PAU Council, Prof. Kenneth Matengu laid emphasis on academic mobility. He said, nowadays, in a context of free movement area, academic mobility should also be strengthened. He further stressed the need for higher education to work with TVET, as he thinks the potential is very high. He further suggested that PAU alumni reinvest in higher education.

Professor Gabriel Magoma, Director of PAUSTI, also thanked the Government of Kenya for the good collaboration recognizing that Kenya has provided the biggest support to PAUSTI as host Government.

The meeting was concluded with issues relating to internship opportunities for PAUSTI students.

Chancelle BILAMPASSI MOUTSATSI| ESTI Department, African Union Commission | Tel: +251 115 517 700 |