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Alhaji Muniri Mohammed Limuna, Northern Regional Minister has appealed to stakeholders in education to redouble their efforts at halting the decline in the standards of education in the three Northern Regions. He said education was the bedrock for development and that without quality, inclusive and equitable education, there would be no suitable human development. �You will all agree with me that education is central to development and there is a strong correlation between education and income�, he said. Alhaji Limuna was speaking in Tamale during a two-day Northern Regional Education Forum jointly organised by IBIS and the School for Life (SfL) both education and development-oriented NGOs operating in the Northern Region. The forum brought together Education Directors from all the districts in the Northern Region, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCE), District Coordinating Directors, other stakeholders in education and Traditional Authorities to deliberate on finding lasting solutions and follow up to ensure that the suggested solutions are implemented. Alhaji Limuna said it was important for people, especially those from the north to acquaint themselves with the current trends in educational performance, particularly among the basic schools, whose performance over the years had been woefully abysmal, so that they could collectively address the problem. He said quality education delivery should always be considered as a collective responsibility and that government could not do it alone, but with the support of the private sector and development partners. He expressed the hope that the strong representation of religious and traditional leaders at the forum would help improve education. He said the Northern Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) was fully committed to any cause that would help improve education in the area and that the RCC would leave no stone unturned to rally support for the Regional Directorate of Education and other development partners. He said the forum was a testimony of the people�s determination as Northerners to give meaning to the struggle to sustainable development and urged participants to take the forum seriously and help change the face of education to enhance development. Mr Charls Wontewe, Country Director of IBIS said it was important for policy makers in the three northern regions to endeavour to use the area�s available resources effectively and urged them to motivate teachers as a way of improving educational delivery. He said it was important for the Northern elite to spend most of their time to seek the welfare of their people including education improvement since agriculture, which was the main occupation of majority of the people, was now disappointing. He indicated that there was a wanton destruction of the shea tree, while the gold, iron ore and other mineral deposits in the north would further aggravate the poverty situation since the hunt for such minerals was degrading the environment. He said IBIS would continue to collaborate with its partners to ensure that the decline in the standards of education in the north was reversed. He appealed to teachers to remain committed to their job so as to change the face of education for national development.