News:
July 23, 2020
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), is developing modalities to harmonize academic degrees, curriculum and certificate equivalence in West Africa due to the growing internalization of education and culture in the region.
This formed part of the discussions at the Joint Committee Meeting of the Committee on Education, Science and Culture, and the Committee on Communication and ICT of the ECOWAS Parliament held virtually.
Addressing Parliamentarians, Mrs. Rachel Ogbe, Principal Programme Officer on Education of the ECOWAS Commission, speaking on behalf of the ECOWAS Commissioner on Education, Science and Culture, stated that ECOWAS seeks to achieve a number of specific objectives; the first being to develop regional criteria for the harmonization of pre-university qualifications, in particular the period of study, content of curricula, qualification assessment and other prerequisites for the establishment of equivalence of Member States’ accreditation systems.
According to her presentation to involve defining benchmarks/criteria to match university and professional qualifications in the region; draw up a list of courses in Member States’ universities as well as admission requirements; number of years of study; required credits; and certificates.
Other specific objectives contained in her presentation will be to clarify the classification of academic qualifications (certificate, diploma, bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate, etc.) in Member States and develop a road-map for the implementation of the ECOWAS Convention on equivalence of certificates.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com