Partnerships for Capacity Building and Quality ... - ADEA

ment in general. Far from being contrary to quality teaching and advanced science,as certain experiments with “Africanized schools” rightly or wrongly indicated,relevance should be closely linked to these two in order to strengthenmotivation and pedagogy. Such an approach would increase the chances andrelevance of success through visible opportunities to invest knowledge withinthe sphere of social practices and in close relationship with the needs and realitiesof the milieu.I would also like to make another point on which it is also important tointensify policy dialogue: we need to understand the priority status of basiceducation.In our view, this choice cannot be questioned. This priority is the primarycondition for the edification of democratic structures and the achievement oflasting development through the constant and active participation of all citizens.However, granting priority to one level of the educational system does notmean we should neglect or abandon the other levels. It is a natural law that allsystems function through the interdependence of their parts. More specifically,Africa has a pressing need to train senior and mid-level officials who canstrengthen our capacity to accept, adapt and appropriate scientific and technologicaldiscoveries from the outside, and develop our own inventive and creativepotential so that we may participate in global progress on our own terms.For this reason, priority treatment of basic education must be conceived andcarried out as part of a global and integrated approach to the development of theeducation system. We need this to respond to the general education needs ofeach country and prevent malfunctioning, disconnection, and other factors ofdeficiency and crisis.It can be deduced from the foregoing that our goal of developing educationis not a simple one. It is a complex and sometimes contradictory process of socialchange that requires profound changes in direction, institutions and actors. Expectedeffects and impacts are rarely visible over the short term and are difficultto reconcile with project cycles. It is in our interest to go beyond this limitedlevel of design, planning and operations by integrating projects into broader,strategic education development programmes involving long-term action, planningof transitional phases as milestones to measure progress towards an ultimategoal. This way we can know what resources will be needed to reach ourgoals and intermediary objectives, and thereby improve systems’ managementby strengthening capacities for foresight, monitoring and arbitration. Now, thatis a challenge to be promoted by our new partnerships. And, to meet that challengewe will need all the understandings and knowledge that no one of us,alone, possesses.I wanted to share these ideas with you as my contribution on the prerequisitesfor partnership and policy dialogue for defining goals and priorities for thedevelopment of education. Let us now turn our attention to a brief reflection onthe practice of partnerships, the issues at stake and the challenges before them.Our world has changed. The fall of the Berlin wall and the events surround-30 PARTNERSHIPS FOR CAPACITY BUILDING AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENTS IN EDUCATION