It comes ahead of the conference of Ministers of Education of the African Union in Yaounde on Friday, April 25, 2014.

Senior Officials of the African Union (AU) yesterday, April 22, met in Yaounde ahead of the sixth ordinary session of the conference of Ministers of Education of the African Union (COMEDAF VI) to discuss vital educational topics under the theme, “Educating for African Renaissance towards 2063”. One of such issues was the progress and implementation of the Pan African University (PAU) launched in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 14 December, 2011.

In his presentation, Dr Ogol of the African Union Commission said the PAU is a premier continental University network recognised by decision of the Summit of Heads of State and Government with mission to develop continental-wide and world-class postgraduate curriculum, facilitate the acknowledged networking and the mobility of students and staff between African academic and research institutions, amongst other things.

Reports indicate that since the creation of PAU, the institution already has four thematic fields allocated to four member States as well as their Lead Thematic Partners (LTP).  One of these thematic areas is the PAU Institute for Governance, Humanities and Social Sciences (PAUGHSS) located at the University of Yaounde II, Soa with Sweden as its LTP. It was also revealed that the hosting country of the Institute in Southern Africa is yet to be identified.

Senior officials of AU also observed the progress report on the implementation of the Plan of Action for the Second Decade of Education. Dr Beatrice Njenga of AU said in this light, several programmes have been following the AU Summit Declaration launching the decade in January 2006. These programmes focus on areas such as gender and culture, teacher development, tertiary education, quality management, technical and vocational education and training amongst others. Today’s discussions will focus on Joint Road Map for Teacher Development, amongst others.