Dakar, Senegal (PANA) – In order to create a common space of higher education in West Africa, the Network for Excellence in Higher Education in West Africa (REESAO) met on Monday, in Dakar to reflect on how to improve and harmonize education in the various universities of the sub-region.
Under the theme, “Developing and implementing priority action plans of REESAO,” the four-day meeting will be an opportunity for 25 university presidents and several delegations, to harmonize their action plans towards a successful implementation of the Bachelor-Master -Doctorate (LMD) system.
They would also tap information and communication technology (ICT) in different teaching strategies, share information from the different libraries and manage in a common context education in case students and teachers move in another country.
”Today, higher education and research systems should be one of the main levers of development of our countries toward emergence. But in our West African countries, universities experience crises for years and do not necessarily produce graduates that meet the needs of the economy,” Omar Sock, Director General of Higher Education in Senegal, said.
“The research themes do not always correspond to local concerns on the one hand and on the other, even when they correspond, the results are not applied on the ground. It is therefore necessary to revitalize our higher education and research system. We need to work in solidarity and with a mutual mind to share best practices for our countries’ access to development through the training of quality human resources,” he said.
According to the President of the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, Professor Saliou Ndiaye, who is also President of REESAO, “the network is an ideal framework for reflection and sharing to find appropriate solutions to the various problems faced by the universities in the sub-region, namely overpopulation, lack of financial and human resources and inadequate implementation of the LMD system,” he said.
“Universities in the sub-region face almost the same problems and we can take up the challenges only through this framework. As a result, transferring an Ivorian student and his results in a Malian university, for example, will be easier thanks to our network,” he said.
Formed in Lomé, Togo, on October 11, 2005, REESAO aims to promote a new policy of university cooperation, while putting emphasis on modernizing higher education to help mobility and employment for students.
