On 15 April 2021, CONFEMEN (Conférence des ministres de l’Éducation des États et gouvernements de la Francophonie), which is headquartered in Senegal, hosted high-level webinar focused on the CERC book written by Mark Bray L’éducation de l’ombre en Afrique (i.e. the French translation of the book Shadow Education in Africa: Private Supplementary Tutoring and its Policy Implications).
The event was co-hosted by France Éducation International, which is an arm of the French government responsible for international relations in the education sector.
Following introductions by CONFEMEN Secretary-General Abdel-Rahamane Baba-Moussa and FEI Director-General Pierre-François Mourier, Mark Bray presented the book. Then six Ministers of Education and/or their representatives spoke, namely:
- Chad: Aboubakar Assidick Tchoroma,
- Gabon: Camelia Ntoutoume-Leclerq,
- Guinea: M. Bah,
- Guinea Bissau: Arcenio Adulai Baldé,
- Senegal: Chaikana Lam, and
- Togo: Dodzi Kokoroko.
Other speakers included:
- Alioune Sall, Director of the African Futures Institute (AFI),
- Manos Antoninis, Director of UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report,
- David Atchoarena, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, and
- Koumbou Boly Barry, Chief of Education in ICESCO, and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education.
All speakers recognized the need to focus more clearly on private supplementary tutoring, especially in the context of social inequalities. More data are needed and wider discussion in order to ‘take the topic out of the shadows’.
