In 1998, in collaboration with the World Bank and the West African News Media and Development Center (WANAD), ADEA launched a new activity promoting the use of communication in support of education. The activity aims at building ministerial capacities for communication and outreach as well as improved media understanding of education issues. The following article reports on two meetings held so far and on future activities planned.
Education in Africa faces numerous challenges in the 21st century. Efforts such as broadening access to education, improving quality, or building the capacities and resources to do so, will require the participation of, and dialogue between, the various actors and partners in education. Communication, in order to share information, build confidence, sustain goodwill, reinforce cooperation and improve education, will be crucial to support the partnerships which promote educational development. But how to communicate? Concerning education, who says what, to whom, about what, how and with what effect? That is the classical set of questions that practitioners and researchers in communication have been asking for decades; and the answers are not immediately obvious to many leaders, including educational policy makers and practitioners.
In 1998, ADEA, in collaboration with the World Bank and the West African Newsmedia and Development Center (WANAD), launched a new initiative to tackle these queries and to promote the use of communication in support of education. The activity aims at developing ministerial capacities for communication and outreach as well as improved media understanding of education issues.
Two meetings have been held so far. A first meeting of communication experts, held in Cotonou, Bénin, October 12-16, 1998, sought to assess the communication needs of education ministries. A second meeting, held in Harare, March 17, 1999, was attended by Ministers of Education and was aimed at: (i) discussing the role of communication, how it is used today and the potential it holds for the promotion of education in Africa; (ii) getting the Ministers' inputs on a capacity building program developed in Cotonou.
Both meetings examined successful, and not-so-successful, African experiences in achieving educational policy changes through various communication approaches, involving not only mass media, but also institutional, group and interpersonal communication. Presentations included a broad overview of the state of communication in Africa, a paper on the role of communication for education and development, and a reflection on communication related to partnerships, trust and pedagogy. Ways and means of involving communication tools, channels and technologies to initiate and sustain dialogue for education and development were explored. The use of traditional channels of communication as well as new information and communication technologies was discussed.
Country experiences in institutional communication
One of the highlights of the Cotonou meeting was the sharing of country experiences conveyed by the communication officers of Ministries of Education. Presentations showed that there is a growing awareness of the need for improved communication demonstrated by the emergence of communication officers and departments in most ministries of education. However, communication activities are still granted low priority due to the lack of broader, governmental awareness of the importance of effective communication. For this reason, existing structures are largely inadequate and the actions undertaken are often unstructured.
In most countries there is no established tradition of communication for education, and the cultural climate for it is not very favorable. Information policies and strategies are lacking and there is a tendency to retain information. Communication is often considered a luxury, used in times of crisis. In many cases, the concept of communication is reduced to media relations, public relations or publicity. As a result, the institutional locations and functional roles of officers in charge of communication vary from one country to the other. Some are one-person outfits attached directly to the Ministers of Education as publicity, protocol or media staff; while others are heads of formally established communication units. Nearly all the countries lack human, material and financial resources in communication.
The evolution of mass media in Africa
The general context is characterized by the tremendous changes that have occurred in the last decade. Government monopoly has been broken so that in nearly all countries, private newspapers are flourishing. Radio and television, for a long time the exclusive domain of government, are opening up to private ownership. While quantitative growth has been substantial, much remains to be done in qualitative terms. Newspapers, which have made great efforts to develop editorial independence, still remain overwhelmingly political and personality-oriented. News agencies remain, in most cases, government departments or agencies. Television is handicapped by the lack of equipment and poor local production capacities. The private media, motivated by what will sell, are not interested in covering education issues. News tends to be defined in negative terms, as what does not work, what is going wrong. There is much superficial treatment of information with very little attention given to issues of education and development.
Outcomes of the meetings
The main outcome of the
Cotonou and Harare meetings was the development of a strategy and
program of activities at regional and national levels. The program
was commented upon and approved by the Ministers present at the Harare
meeting (See Box above). Forthcoming activities include the development
of curricula for the training of journalists and communicators for
education and development, the organization of regional training seminars,
and the creation of networks of journalists and communication officers
in education. While the program is being implemented jointly by ADEA
and the World Bank, training activities will be coordinated by the
West African Newsmedia and Development Center (WANAD), based in Cotonou,
Benin, (See Box on page 9). They will be carried out in close collaboration
with various African media and communication institutions such as
the School of Media and Graphic Studies in Kampala, Uganda; the Zambian
Institute of Mass Communication, and the Institute for the Science
and Technology of Communication (ISTIC) in Yaounde, Cameroon.
Thanh-Hoa
Desruelles
Information and Communication Officer
ADEA
For further
information on the program please contact:
Akin Fatoyinbo
Senior Communication Specialist
The World Bank
B.P. 1850
Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
Tel: +225/ 44 22 27
Email: afatoyinbo@worldbank.org
Or
Thanh-Hoa
Desruelles
Information and Communication Officer
Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA)
7-9 rue Eugène-Delacroix
75116 Paris, France
Tel: +33/ (0) 145 03 41 92
E-mail: th.desruelles@iiep.unesco.org
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