Accra, March 10, GNA - The ECOWAS Parliament has set an agenda to create awareness

in the sub- region on the importance of Information, Communication and Technology

(ICT) in education. Mr Ousmane Mahamane, Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament and former President of Niger,

told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra on Tuesday that ICT is very

necessary for the development of the individual and the community as a whole. "We live in a very competitive world and the sub-region needs to be improved to be

able to join the world in the areas of information technology," he stressed. Mr Mahamane opened a four- day meeting of ECOWAS Parliament Joint Committee on

Education, Science, Youth Sports and Culture and Communication Information Technology

in Accra. It was on the theme: "Introduction of New Information and Communication Technologies in the System of Education; Challenges and Perspectives." He said the meeting was expected to help improve the knowledge and skill acquisition in trade in the region, in order to prepare the people to meet the global challenge.

Mr Mahamane said South Africa, Tunisia, Zimbabwe and Morocco had made significant progress in ICT integration in Africa. Mr Mahamane observed that new ideas and technologies are emerging from ICT, hence the need for the people to be abreast of the changing trends. He said it was for this reason that ECOWAS Parliament saw the need to hold the conference to enforce policies meant for the integration of ICT in education for a better tomorrow.

Mr Mahamane said in future the world would be an ICT home where those without knowledge and access to the innovation would be very ignorant. The ECOWAS Parliament deals with issues regarding integration, peaceful co-existence, security and other social issues.