Working group on Education Statistics (WGES) holds annual meeting and develops workplans for sub-regional nodes previous page | next page The Working Group on Education Statistics (WGES) held two meetings back to back in Harare in January 1999. The first meeting was focused on the structure and workplans of WGESA's two nodes for Eastern and Southern Africa, and Western and Central Africa. The second was the annual meeting of the WGES to report on progress made since the previous meeting in 1997 and to approve the workplan for 1999 and 2000. The presence of 80 participants from 36 African countries and from international agencies underscored the widespread interest in WGES activities. This was the first meeting of the WGES with such a large presence of participaans from African countries. In his opening speech, the Zimbabwe Minister of Education, Sports and Culture encouraged the meeting to initiate capacity building programs in the region. "To meet the challenges of providing Education For All, Africa needs professional institutions and experts in information systems that can transform education sector administra-tion into modern knowledge management organizations", he said. An important purpose of the first meeting was to promote contacts between African specialists from various countries in order to establish a professional network in education statistics. Working groups were formed for various areas of education statistics based on the needs of the countries and the participants' field of expertise. For each area, the groups identified capacity building needs, availability of resource persons and institutions, and how these can be made available for regional capacity building. Annual meeting work plan The reports from participating countries revealed that significant developments have taken place since the last meeting in 1997. Progress was also evident with reagrd to the three components of the Working Group: the NESIS program, the forum activities and the support services. The proposals emanating from the first meeting were presented and the WGES Secretariat was given the responsibility to finalize the workplan for 1999 and 2000. The links between WGES and the EFA 2000 Assessment were also discussed. It was agreed that the NESIS program shall assist countries on matters relating to statistical indicators, while the UNESCO convenor will form EFA regional advisory groups to mobilize support for the country assessment exercises. For further information, please contact: Ko Chih Tung Coordinator of the Working Group on Education Statistics UNESCO Office P.O. Box H.G 435 8 Kenilworth Road, Highlands Harare, Zimbabwe Tel: +263 4 776 115 Fax: +263 4 776 055 E-mail: kc.tung@unesco.org

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