Communication for Education and Development (COMED)

COMED became a member of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) Working Group (WG) in 2002. The Working Group is made up of four major constituencies:

• ministries of education through their communication or information units;
• media specialised in education reporting;
• communication researchers and trainers; and
• development organisations involved in the Working Group's areas of concern.

The Working Group's main activities are:

• national and sub-regional training workshops for journalists and communication officers;
• building a network of education journalists and education ministry communication officers;
• organising media coverage of major education events in Africa;
• organising the Africa Education Journalism Award that recognises the best articles on education by African journalists; and
• research and advisory services in communication for education and development.

COMED is also involved in a number of other activities which include:

• studies of African media reporting on education;
• consultations with African broadcasters to explore policy changes for enhancing and extending use of community radio for education promotion;
• the preparation of training materials on communication for policy dialogue; and
• assistance to the Fédération Aricaine des Associations des Parents d'élèves et d'étudiants (FAPE) through its project, L'Ecole des Parents, in 2004 and 2005, with radio broadcasts in which parents spoke to parents, about education.

According to COMED, in the period from2008 to 2012 the organisation is giving priority to capacity building for education ministries to enable them to communicate more effectively. Therefore attention is to be given to institutional and corporate communication challenges facing education ministries and how to assist them to adopt more strategic and results-oriented communication approaches in support of on-going and proposed education reforms. In addition, a concerted advocacy initiative will be directed towards the leadership of education ministries at the highest political and technical levels in order to encourage them to give communication strategies greater visibility in policy development and management in the education sector.

COMED’s Strategic Plan also includes a proposal for a performance measurement framework for the Working Group. Together with partners, user-friendly monitoring and evaluation systems that will be able to evaluate COMED's roles and impact will be developed. Results and new knowledge will be shared with all partners ensuring that lessons are learned from experiences. Research institutions, their activities, and data-bases in education will be promoted among journalists and other communicators. Training in the use of educational statistics and other data-related experiences for reporters and correspondents would be necessary, as is the creation of user-friendly Education Management Information Systems (EMIS).

Education

The Working Group on Communication for Education and Development has outlined certain objectives:

• strengthen the capacity of communication units in ministries of education in African countries to promote national dialogue and consensus for education policies and programmes;
• develop a network of trained journalists within the African media to report on issues of education and development; and
• enhance the exchange and distribution of news and information among ADEA constituencies, including African journalists specialising in education issues and communication officers in education ministries;