African Leaders in Education and Training for Sustained Growth to Learn from Asian Experience at Singapore Workshop and Book Launch

Contact:

Beldina Auma
Tel.: (202) 458-7307
E-mail: baumaowuor@worldbank.org

WASHINGTON, January 24, 2008 — The World Bank’s Africa Region Vice President, Ms. Obiageli Ezekwesili, on January 21, 2008, opened a joint workshop of African Leaders in Education and Training with their Asian counterparts in Singapore. The two-week workshop is being hosted by the Singapore government. Participants are senior policy makers and institutional leaders from Ghana, Madagascar, and Mozambique, invited guests from South Africa, the African Development Bank, the African Capacity Development Foundation, donor partners, World Bank staff, as well as counterparts from Singapore, and resource persons from Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam.

The program includes presentations and discussions on key challenges faced by African countries in making their education and training system more effective in providing the skills needed to support economic and social development. A presentation was made on how Singapore addressed similar problems, especially during the first three to four decades of independence. Guest speakers shared their knowledge about the development experiences of such countries as Malaysia and Vietnam.

A book entitled Development Practice in Education: An African Exploration of the East Asia Education Experience was launched on the first day of the workshop, along with a companion volume entitled “Toward a Better Future: Education and Training for Economic Development in Singapore since 1965.”

WHO: -- Obiageli Ezekwesili, Vice President, Africa Region, World Bank

-- African Leaders in Education and Training from Ghana, Madagascar andMozambique

WHAT: -- Workshop on Leaders in Education and Training for Sustained Growth in Africa

-- Book Launch: Development Practice in Education: An African Exploration of the East Asian Education Experience, edited by Bireger FREDRIKSEN and TAN Jee-Peng

-- Companion volume: Toward a Better Future: Education and Training for Economic Development in Singapore since 1965, edited by LEE Sing Kong, GOH Chor Boon, Birger FREDRIKSEN and TAN Jee Peng.

WHEN : January 21, 2008 (9 a.m. to 12 noon)

WHERE: Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, 392 Havelock Road Singapore 169663

Tel: +65-6733 0880