UNESCO Forum enhances Korea-Africa educational collaboration

The forum was designed to build on the discussions about educational cooperation initiated at the 2024 Korea-Africa Summit held earlier this month in Korea, aiming to strengthen solidarity with African countries. More than 200 participants, including representatives from UNESCO, the African Union, 11 African partner countries, and domestic and international experts in education and international development cooperation participated.

Under the theme "The Africa Africa Wants: Korea's Education Cooperation with Africa," the first day of the forum focused on the significance of education in Africa, efforts to ensure quality education, examples and achievements of the Korean government's UNESCO-affiliated education cooperation projects in Africa, and future directions.

Xing Qu, Deputy Director-General for UNESCO offered congratulatory remarks on the successful opening of the international forum on Korea-Africa education nexus and emphasized the need of education to become more inclusive and the power of the youth in realizing our collective goals. Hervé Huot-Marchand, Chief of the Section for Youth, Literacy and Skills Development at UNESCO Headquarters presented UNESCO’s Global Education Initiatives for Africa's Vision. He highlighted initiatives like the Transforming Education Summit, which aims to address Africa's issues through national commitments and actions, data availability, and specific programmes like the Capacity Development for Education (CapED) and the Better Education for Africa’s Rise (BEAR) project.

Mr. Richard Kabutey, President of the Ghanaian Student Association in the Republic of Korea, who participated as a panelist, stated, "through this forum, we hope to build a network to share knowledge and practices in the field of education. My goal is to contribute to the development of innovative education strategies that are appropriate for Africa, ultimately improving educational outcomes."

Park Sung-min, Deputy Minister for Planning and Coordination in the Ministry of Education, remarked, "I hope this forum will be an opportunity for the Republic of Korea and Africa to share their experiences in education cooperation and discuss the future. We will share our experiences in education development and continue to work closely with Africa to strengthen its role as a pivotal global partner."

On the second day, in collaboration with the Korea Research Institute of Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET), UNESCO’s mission team and the representatives from the beneficiary countries of the BEAR project visited KRIVET and discussed the collaboration to ensure the success of the Bear III project. Dr. Hye One Ko, President of KRIVET, emphasized that the BEAR project will provide capacity development opportunities for the African stakeholders in the field of TVET, and to share the unique expertise and experience of Korean TVET with African countries.  Also, three representatives from the beneficiary countries of the BEAR project met with KRIVET researchers and discussed the status of technical and vocational education and training in their respective countries, as well as the direction for the third phase of the BEAR project. 

After the meeting at KRIVET, the UNESCO team and representatives visited Yuseong Bio-Science High School and toured a smart farm facility that utilizes ICT technology to automatically control the growing environment of crops, and a plant factory system that can efficiently grow crops, providing students with the opportunity to learn about agricultural production activities utilizing advanced technology. 

Through this event, UNESCO, the Korean Ministry of Education, and KRIVET were able to build collaborative network and form a consensus for the successful implementation of the BEAR III project. Olodo Muyibat Adenike, Director of Federal Ministry of Education of Nigeria, shared that the collaboration and cooperation with KRIVET and the government of the Republic of Korea will be crucial to Nigeria and that the experience will be good for the country.