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Douglas Chiteka Herald reporter
Quality and reliable data is essential in achieving the education for all goals as well as Millennium Development Goals by 2015, a senior education official has said.
Speaking at a regional workshop on education statistics for Southern and Eastern Africa in Harare yesterday, Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Secretary, Dr Washington Mbizvo said attainment of global targets could never be achieved without accurate data.
He said Governments needed to use statistics to back up their assertions as these provided the means to measure and control achievements in the educational system.
“As you are all aware, we are now less than a year to 2015 and our assessment on how our countries have achieved the MDGs and EFA goals as well as planning for education post 2015 depends heavily on the accuracy and reliability of the data that we collect and process,” Dr Mbizvo said.
Speaking at the same occasion, director for UNESCO Multi sectoral regional office for southern Africa Professor Luc Rukingama said as 2015 was approaching, policy makers at both national and international levels were looking to assess the extent to which the education and development targets had been achieved, especially since 2000.
“Figures show that about 58 million children are still out of school worldwide, of which 57 percent are in sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.
Prof Rukingama said almost six out of every 10 additional teachers were needed to achieve UPE by 2015 in sub-Saharan Africa.
Online Reporter