The ADEA launches the Portuguese edition of the African Education Journalism Award in Luanda, Angola

Luanda, Angola, 2 December 2004 – Today, 2 December, the ADEA launched the first Portuguese edition of the African Education Journalism Award Akintola Fatoyinbo. The Prize is awarded for the best articles written by African journalists and published in the African press. His Excellency Mr. Antonio Burity Da Silva Neto, Angola’s Minister of Education, launched the first edition of the award for Portuguese articles in the presence of His Excellency Mr. Fonseca Chindondo, Angola’s Vice-minister of Social Communications, and the ADEA Executive Secretary. The ceremony took place in the Hotel Alvalade, which hosted a seminar this week on training in policy dialogue in the field of education for the Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Five countries (Angola, Cap-Verde, Guinée Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, and Sao Tomé and Principe), which were represented by the ministers of education or their representatives, attended the inauguration of the Education Journalism Award in Portuguese. Also present were top officials from the education ministries of these countries, along with other participants in the policy dialogue training seminar and members of the international and Angolan press.

The ADEA created the African Education Journalism Award in 2001 in order to promote coverage of education by the African media. The Award is intended to encourage the press to write articles about education and to stimulate publish discussion of education in Africa.

Each year the Award recognizes the best articles on education that are written by African journalists and appear in the African press. In addition to a cash prize, the winners and their editors will be invited to take part in a study tour that includes seminars on current educational issues and visits to the major media groups that partner the Award, including The Vanguard (Nigeria); Le Monde de l’éducation, Libération and Radio France Internationale in Paris; and The Times Educational Supplement and the BBC in London.

Thanh-Hoa Desruelles, ADEA Communications Officer, expressed her hope that the African Education Journalism Award Akintola Fatoyinbo would encourage the African press to combine its efforts with those of others to promote quality education for all. She emphasised the crucial role of journalists as informers and educators, as well as their responsibilities with regard to the information they deliver, the opinions they form and the values they spread.
Professor Alfred Opubor, coordinator of the ADEA Working Group on Communications for Education and Development (COMED), evoked the memory of Akintola Fatoyinbo, the founder of the Award, and then emphasised the need for continuing education of the press and for journalists to specialise in covering educational issues. The Award will strengthen the ADEA Working Group’s training programme for education and development by encouraging journalists to continually raise their professional level.

Angola’s Vice-minister of Social Communications then congratulated and encouraged the organisers of the Award and expressed his hope that the sparks from this day would spread as the outstanding journalist Akintola Fatoyinbo would have wanted.

Before declaring the 2005 competition for the African Education Journalism Award officially open, His Excellency Mr. Antonio Burity Da Silva Neto discussed the initiatives taken by his country to inform journalists of the challenges education faces and to set up training programmes that award degrees from the Education Ministry. He saluted the ADEA initiative, and in the name of his colleagues from the ministries in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, he called on journalists writing in Portuguese to participate in the competition. He expressed his hope that the Portuguese articles would be at least as good if not better than the English and French ones, and he announced that Angola would launch a journalism award in January 2005.

For the 2005 competition, any article is eligible that is written in Portuguese, French or English by an African journalist and published in an African newspaper, newsweekly or other publication. The ADEA must receive the articles by 1 April 2005. An international jury composed of education specialists and journalists will evaluate the articles and select six of them (two in Portuguese, two in English and two in French). As in the previous competitions, the prize winners will be invited to take part in a study trip. The sum of 2000 euros will also be awarded to the first prize winners, and 1000 euros to the winners of second prize.

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Luanda, Angola, 2 December 2004