President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has appointed Dr Michael Boakye-Yiadom as a National Convenor for the 2022 United Nations/UNESCO Transforming Education Summit (TES).
Dr Boakye-Yiadom, the Director-General of the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA), University of Cape Coast (UCC), is expected to support the Ministry of Education on the TES.
He would provide leadership for a successful planning and implementation of the Transforming Education Summit (TES)’s Pre-Summit in Paris in June and the main summit in September in New York City.
President Akufo-Addo communicated the appointment of Dr Boakye-Yiadom to the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, in a letter dated June 8, 2022.
Ghana’s National Convenor to the United Nations/UNESCO Transforming Education Summit (TES) was responsible for conceptualising, planning, organising, executing, monitoring, preparing and presenting the final outputs of national consultation(s).
The convenor was also encouraged to establish a support team – or make use of existing structures – who will be responsible for managing the design, planning, organisation, and monitoring of one or more consultations at the national and/or sub-national levels.
Reacting to the appointment, Dr Boakye-Yiadom described it as an honour and pledged to work with other team members to make the country proud.
“I see this as an IEPA appointment and I am humbled by the President’s and the Minister for Education’s confidence in my leadership. As a team, we will deliver as expected.
“I count on the support of all stakeholders, especially staff at the Ministry of Education, development partners, civil society, the private sector and NGOs. I am excited about our collective enthusiasm and commitment to make Ghana proud,” he said.
The Transforming Education Summit aims to accelerate progress towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 and forge a common vision for education, building on the forthcoming work of the International Commission on the Futures of Education.
The summit would bring together member-states, teachers, the academia, NGOs, and the private sector, with the firm objective to include the youth as co-creators of the summit.
The TES expects commitments of the government of Ghana to implement concrete initiatives at country levels as the summit seeks to employ three primary intersecting and reinforcing workstreams for advancing preparations: national consultations; thematic action tracks; public engagement and mobilisation.
Not too long ago, the IEPA was appointed by the Ministry of Education to coordinate the reporting of SDG4 activities in Ghana geared towards tracking the achievement of targets and indicators.
The appointment of the Director-General of IEPA as Ghana’s National Convenor for the Transforming Education Summit confirmed the key role IEPA was playing as a UNESCO Category II Centre of Excellence.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
