Accra, June 30th, 2005 – Female journalists from Angola, Benin and Nigeria emerged as top winners of this year’s Akintola Fatoyinbo Africa Education Journalism Award announced here today. According to the Jury that has been meeting in the Ghanaian capital for three days, Rosalina Mateta of Journal do Angola won first prize for Portuguese language entries with her story entitled “A Outra Lição das Escolas”, (“The alternative lesson from school”), about gang violence in schools. For articles in English, Bukola Olatunji of Thisday, a Nigerian newspaper came first with “A slap on the dignity of man”, a story about poor living conditions of students in Nigerian universities. The winning French language article, submitted by Rose Ablavi Akakpo of “Le Point au quotidien” of Cotonou, Benin Republic, was entitled “La Fonction Enseignante la vocation se Meurt”, (“The Teaching Profession; The Calling is Dying”). Both Olatunji and Akakpo were first prize winners three years ago, in their respective language groups, at the maiden edition of the competition in 2002. The Portuguese language award is being given for the first time this year.

Second prize winners were also announced, as follows:

2nd Prize winner Portuguese is José Mãrio Correia for his story entitled “A Vez da Educação”, (Time for Education) from the weekly newspaper, Horizonte of Praia in Cape Verde. 2nd Prize winner (English) is Joe Ombuor for his article “Where ‘Booked’ girls find new suitors in Education.” from the Sunday Nation of Nairobi, Kenya. And 2nd Prize winner (French) language is Moussa Sadio for his article, “Formation ‘coin de rue’ le petits pas d’une école alternative.” (Street Schooling: The Small Steps of an alternative School), from Le Soleil de Dakar of Senegal.

While commending the increasingly high standards and improvement in the quality of the winning articles, the Jury remarked that the majority of entries were still of mediocre or even poor quality. The Jury also observed that the better entries seemed to come from journalists affiliated with newspapers that had established education ‘desks’ or ‘units’ or that had otherwise committed themselves to a focus on education. This indicated a need for continuous training for African journalists to improve over all skills and to encourage specialization in education, as well as advocacy with media proprietors and editors to invest in education reporting.

The Award was created in 2001 by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa, ADEA. Its objectives are to stimulate public discussion and debate on education issues through enhancing media understanding and competence in education coverage. It also aims to encourage African journalists and media institutions to specialize in education journalism.

The Award, now in its fourth edition, has been organized by ADEA in the context of the training program initiated by its Working Group on Communication for Education and Development, COMED.

Professor Alfred Opubor, Coordinator of COMED, said that the Jury’s report and detailed evaluation of the entries would provide useful information for improving training materials and programmes.

The Ghana Deputy Minister of Education Mr. Twumasi Amposo who presided over the closing ceremony, congratulated the winners and hoped that they would use the opportunity to strengthen their professional development and specialization in education reporting. Mr. Twumasi Amposo said that his Ministry was conscious of the contributions which well-informed media can make to education development and reform programs, and challenged Ghanaian and other African journalists to take education seriously in their work.

First prize winners receive a cash prize of two thousand euros each, while the second place winners receive one thousand euros. In addition to a cash prize, winners and their chief editors will be invited to take part in a study tour that includes seminars on current educational issues and developments in journalism and media management.

About COMED

The Working Group on Communication for Education,(COMED), was created to develop communication capacities in ministries of education and enhance media understanding and reporting of education. A major premise underlying COMED’s programs is that information exchange and communication among partners are essential to well-managed and efficient educational systems to support the achievement of quality education for all. So far, over 500 journalists and communication officers from 30 countries have participated in COMED workshops.