EAC urged to harmonise education

Prime Minister Dr Pierre Damien Habumuremyi has called members of the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) to play a key role in the harmonisation of the education systems in the region.The premier made the call, on Friday, while officially opening the third Annual meeting for IUCEA in Kigali.“One of the strategies to operationalise the EAC Common Market Protocol relates to the harmonisation of the education systems in the region; therefore, there is need for inter-university council to appropriately harmonise higher education systems for universities in the region,” he said.The Premier asked IUCEA to mobilise resources to support research programmes and ensure that what has been achieved is sustained for the benefit of the people of East Africa.He urged them to forge close partnerships with governments, industries and business communities since they are the consumers of products from universities through the students who graduate from there. “Universities in the region should be the key drivers towards a creation of a knowledge-driven society in the East African Community. Therefore, as members of IUCEA which is a strategic institution of EAC responsible for coordination affairs, it’s imperative for you as academicians in the region to look at the quality of education our Higher education is providing,” Harebamungu urged.While addressing the participants, the Minister of Education, Dr Vincent Biruta, said that the success of EAC integration will depend on the quality of its human capital among member states.“Any effort to establish systems for harmonisation of higher education in the region must ensure that the established education systems conform to the international practices, procedures and guidelines. This will lead to international credibility and competitiveness,” Biruta said.He also said that there was a need for EAC member states to safeguard it their current leadership in spearheading the agenda of the African Union towards the harmonisation of the education systems in Africa.The Executive Secretary for IUCEA, Prof Mayunga H.H Nkunya, said that his institution has come up with an initiative to establish a regional quality assurance system saying that this will promote the quality of education provided in the East African universities.“There is a need to ensure that the education that universities provide for the young people caters for the aspirations of East Africans to transform their socio-economic lives and to improve the general welfare of the general society,” Prof. Nkunya said.In an interview with The Sunday Times, Prof. Peter B. Kibas, the Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Academics and Finance at Kabarak University in Kenya said: “It’s necessary to harmonise our education systems as East Africans because this will enable free movement of the human capital in the region”.He said that lack of enough political will among some EAC member states is one of the factors still hampering the process of EAC integration, especially in the education sector, saying that there is a need for all EAC partner states to have a clear and common objective towards regional integration.The United Nations projects a minimum of ten per cent of the population to comprise university graduates for a country to maintain sustainable socio-economic development