DADC Member States must harmonise the education policies of the region to facilitate the mobility of teachers, students and researchers, as well as the promotion of high-quality and socially relevant higher education.
The idea was defended yesterday by Minister for Education and Human Development Carmelita Namashulua during the joint meeting of the Ministers for Education and Training, Science, Technology and Innovation of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
‘’ We should promote greater inclusion and retention of the girl in teaching, increase training offers in the area of Sciences, Technologies, Engineering and Mathematics, as well as the application of Hybrid Education, in the context of the Digital Age and as a measure to mitigate the effects of Covid-19’’, he said.
Namashulua required that members of the community should internationalize teaching, research and university extension by developing policies, strategies and programs aimed at students with special educational needs.
‘‘There must be complementarity of effort and synergies between countries for access to competitive institutional development funds for higher education institutions, public and private’, he stressed.
Regarding the area of science, technology and innovation, the minister considers it necessary to reflect on the impact of scientific knowledge, innovation, technology development and technology transfer to academic and scientific communities, to society and the productive sector in SADC.
It is also necessary to reflect on emerging technologies and their influence on the programming of growth and socio-economic development of the countries of the region, in the context of the digital era and the need to develop digital skills in the SADC states.
‘‘We need emerging technologies that should influence the socioeconomic competitiveness of member countries, the inclusion of SADC in the global movement of the 4th Industrial Revolution and the development and consolidation of policies for the Information and Knowledge Society of the community’,’ he stressed.
SADC members are South Africa, Angola, Batswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Eswatini, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
