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19.12.2014 Press Release

8th African Confederation Of Prinipals (ACP) Conference In Ghana: 15th – 17th December, 2014

19.12.2014 LISTEN
By Magnus RexDanquah

COMMUNIQUE
We participants at the 8th African Confederation of Principals (ACP) Conference, held at the Accra International Conference Centre from the 15th to 17th of December 2014, on the theme: EDUCATING THE AFRICAN CHILD: WALKING THE POLICY TALK, hereby resolve that:-

As leaders of our schools on the African continent we will play our roles well since African's development rests solely on our shoulders.

There is an urgent need for us to ensure that the African child benefits from quality education without losing his/her identity and also to move them and their families out of poverty.

To achieve this, there is an urgent need to revamp science and technology education.

KEY ISSUES THAT INFORMED RESOULUTIONS
A: Medium of Instruction
There is the need to regulate the use of foreign language to teach. Instead, more emphasis should be placed on the use of the child's mother tongue in teaching.

B: Inspiring School Leadership
The function of leadership in education is crucial. Every child has a potential no matter the child's background. School therefore determines a child success in life and leadership should play a pivotal role in this direction.

There is therefore the need to inculcate a school leader's programme into the national educational policy. This will ensure holistic nurturing of students for them to become well-rounded and contribute their quota toward the development of their countries.

C: Sustaining Policies on Education
The Conference is of the view that ensuring the sustainability of education policies should be the business of every school leader. And such policies should be informed by national aspirations.

Situations where there are no political will to implement policies must be avoided as much as possible since such situations do not encourage sustainability of policies.

School leaders should also be pro-active in policy implementations.

D: Change of Policies in Education
The Conference is of the view that efforts should be made to depoliticize policies on education.

There is the need to formulate a national policy on human capital development and also create centres of excellence to give equal opportunities to good students, irrespective of their background.

Rapid changes in education policies tend to bring about lack of confidence in the sector and this must be avoided as much as possible.

E: Relevance or Equity of Policies on Education
Policies must therefore take cognizance of the inherent disadvantages in the system and ensure equity. This can lead to increased access and retention, and this will impact positively on the children within the system as well as improve their chances of having quality life.

Equity is about participation, inclusion and fairness.

Heads of Associations should work on becoming policy originators.

Governments should involve policy implementers when developing policies.

Heads of Associations are powerful think tanks and should use this to their advantage by writing about education.

The African Child should be holistic in terms of remembering African values, communications, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking.

F: The Relevance of Continental Platform for The Educational Administrator

School leaders need a continental platform to share ideas and interact with each other for capacity building.

A continental platform will ensure effective network to share ideas and experiences. This will become an effective tool for the school administrator. It can also be used as a medium to lobby governments on matters on education.

G: Conclusion
As a continental body, the African Confederation of Principals (ACP) still believes that the African Child is the future of our continent and that the ACP will do everything possible to ensure that the continent's secondary schools will produce a new African Child who will be very competitive in the global environment.

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