This seminar, on the theme of “The policy of curriculum renewal, the process of curriculum development, local realities and the challenges of the twenty-first century” gathered 50 participants from French-speaking countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. The discussions focused on the following themes : (1) strategies developed to deal with failure, drop-out, illiteracy and the irrelevance of training for employment; (2) universal values in curricula and school textbooks; and (3) co-operation needs and possibilities.

Participants emphasized the need to include training activities in the programme for continued co-operation. Furthermore, the seminar highlighted two important requirements : (1) the need to establish an inventory of the problems besetting the education systems in the participating Member States; and (2) the need to identify various existing solutions launched through reform policies to combat these problems.