On May 31, 2022, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) announced plans to develop a qualifications framework to boost integration and open up education and job opportunities for students and citizens across the region.
According to Dr. Kebede Tsegaye, Igad's regional senior programme coordinator in charge of Education, Science and Technology, the regional qualification framework will enable people to move freely across the region with their education qualifications.
“Currently, if you have a certificate from one country, you are not easily recognised in the next and this has been a big challenge to our integration and unity,” Dr. Tsegaye said.
Only Kenya has an operational qualifications framework so far, but Ethiopia's Education and Training Authority director general Andualem Admassle Abate said the country is at an advanced stage of developing its framework.
“We already have the green light to develop the national qualifications framework for Ethiopia and we are ready to work with other member countries to streamline our education systems,” Dr. Abate said.
The regional qualifications will solve the challenges that citizens and graduates from foreign countries have faced in the past due to lack of a centralised system to validate their foreign education qualifications.
Dr. Moawia Elsir Gashi, Sudan's National Centre for Curriculum and Education Researches General Manager, said implementation of a regional framework will enhance the regions functional relationships.
“Harmonisation of qualifications will enable students from the region to transfer credit courses and also find jobs within the region using their country’s education qualification,” Dr. Gashi said.
The Kenya National Qualifications Authority Director Juma Mukhwana said the regional qualifications framework will support integration of refugees, host communities and returnees into the National Educational and Training Systems.
“The ideal plan is that every country should be able to come up with their own qualification framework and then align it with the Igad framework,” Dr. Mukhwana said.
