African Ministers in charge of Education and Training, Technical and Vocational Skills Development (TVSD), and Higher Education and Scientific Research from some 20 African countries will meeti in Abidjan next week to explore how to accelerate the use of ICT in education to build the 21st century skills needed for Africa’s development. The ”2nd African Ministerial Forum on ICT Integration in Education and Training - Advancing inclusive knowledge societies in Africa, Implementing Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the SDGs” will take place in Abidjan, June 7-9, 2016. The high level event will take place at Abidjan’s Heden Golf Hotel. The Forum will share knowledge and experiences on how to effectively integrate ICTs to enhance the quality and delivery of education and equip learners with 21ST century skills to empower them to become full actors of knowledge societies. Expert panel sessions and Ministerial round tables will explore the following themes:

• ICT and Technical and Vocational Skills Development (TVSD) for youth employment and entrepreneurship;
• ICT in national education and training policies and strategies;
• Empowering marginalized populations through ICT-driven education initiatives;
• ICT applications in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) teaching/learning;
• ICT integration in education, distributed leadership and policy coherence;
• ICT and education in crisis and conflict zones and regions;
• Inclusive knowledge societies and the role of Education and ICT.

African countries attending the Forum will include: Angola, Burkina Faso, Cap Verde, Djibouti, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Ghana, Republic of Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Niger, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Participants will also include development partners, research institutions, representatives of the private sector and civil society organizations will also attend the Forum. This 2nd African Ministerial Forum on ICT Integration in Education and Training on ‘Advancing inclusive knowledge societies in Africa, Implementing Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the SDGs’ is organized by the government of Côte d’Ivoire through its Ministry of National Education, the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), the Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GESCI), the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), Intel, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the International Organisation of La Francophonie (IOF) and Microsoft. The Forum is expected to generate partnerships to accelerate the use of ICT in education and training and to feed into the ADEA 2017 Triennale, which will be held in Marrakesh, Morocco from 15th to 17th March 2017. The Forum will be live-streamed on www.youtube.com/watch More information on panel sessions, Ministerial round tables, participants and side events is available on the Forum web site at www.africaictedu.org Engage in the Forum and share our comments: Official Forum hashtags are: #ICTinEdu and #ICT4Edu