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Wake-Up Call as Millions of Africas Children at Risk of Missing Out on Education Report — Global Issues


Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and Western Asia will not achieve universal preschool education, according to a UNESCO report. Credit: Joyce Chimbi / IPS
  • by Joyce Chimbi (Nairobi, Kenya)
  • Joint press service

“I come from a pastoral community. My father had five wives and many children. I am the only girl in my family who finished primary school and is now in middle school. My mother struggled so hard for me to stay in school. I’m a college freshman studying computational science,” she told IPS.

According to the Ministry of Education, there is almost a 50/50 split between the sexes in the exams, with 50.90% of men taking part and 49.10% of women.

Kenya’s progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), an education objective, is well documented in its most recent benchmark report. UNESCO Institute of Statistics and Global Education Monitoring Report. The East African country is one of the participating countries that have outlined targets that are expected to be achieved by 2025 and 2030.

Like Kenya, two-thirds of countries have defined their goals for 2025 and 2030 in relation to the six key SDG 4 indicators of preschool attendance, school attendance, program completion, reading proficiency and minimal math proficiency, trained teachers, and spending on public education.

The process begins in 2021, and the report shows that Kenya is “nearly universal early childhood education, with plans to increase school enrollment to 86.7% by 2030. Kenya is also on track to achieve universalisation. primary education by 2030.”

By the standards of their respective countries, not all countries in sub-Saharan Africa will achieve SDG 4 by 2030.

“Countries that have participated in this benchmarking process have sent a strong message. They have shown determination in delivering on the promises they made seven years ago when they signed the SDGs,” Manos Antoninis, Director of UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report, told IPS.

“By setting specific goals, they are no longer hiding behind an unattainable global goal. They are planning to achieve it. This is a real opportunity for the global community to come together and help make their plans a reality. ”

According to the Ministry of Education, Uganda has been working from commitments in the Education Sector Strategic Plan to setting achievable standards for education goals between now and 2030.

The report recommends that all countries that have not yet set a standard perform in time this year’s SDG 4 review at the High-Level Political Forum in July as it helps put countries on track to include all children. in Africa to school.

“As we continue to face the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, data and evidence will become even more important. In Rwanda, close monitoring of national education priorities and SDG 4 standards will allow us to intervene quickly and in a way that is appropriate for us to ensure we live in the strong belief that no child is ever born. children are left behind”, the statement from the Rwanda Ministry of Education said.

Overall, the sub-Saharan region has increased its primary education completion rate from 46% to 65%, or by 19 percentage points, about one percentage point per year between 2000 and 2020. At this rate, the region this sector is not on track and lags behind other regions in most indicators of educational development.

However, between 2000 and 2020, an increasing number of countries have made remarkable progress in primary education completion rates.

Togo increased primary school completion rates from 44 percent to 77 percent, Ethiopia from 18 percent to 57 percent, Burundi from 13 percent to 52 percent, Sierra Leone from 26 percent to 70 percent and Sao Tome and Principe from 46 percent to 57 percent.

In contrast, between 2000 and 2020, the key completion rate in sub-Saharan Africa almost stagnated in some countries, such as the Central African Republic, which showed a smaller increase from 28 to 35%, Guinea -Bissau from 20 to 26% and Uganda from 35 to 40 percent.

Against this backdrop, Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for the Chair of the Global Education and Education Commission, welcomes the commitment of countries that have set their ambitions and their contribution to achieving the goals of education. global education.

“The first process of its kind, following best practices in other areas such as climate. These benchmarks show countries’ efforts to accelerate education progress between now and the 2030 deadline,” Brown said.

“This comes at a time when the global education system is faced with numerous challenges. For example, the proportion of teachers with training has fallen dramatically over the past 20 years, with a notable but insufficient reversal of this trend in recent years. “

The reported slow progress towards SDG 4 is even though African countries, along with Latin American countries, prioritize education over any other region in their budgets.

The scale of the challenge is large, and the budget itself is too small due to low levels of domestic resource mobilization and largely stagnant external financial support. Education experts, like Antoninis, say it would be inaccurate to say that sub-Saharan Africa has been derailed.

UNESCO found the region to have come from a much lower starting point due to poverty, malnutrition, ill health, conflict, displacement and difficulties in managing unique features such as its linguistic diversity. .

Many African children are taught at school in a language they do not speak at home. Also, changes in education take a long time to mature.

According to UNESCO, COVID-19 has also affected countries unequal. Even within the same region in Africa, some countries have closed their schools for two years, while others have barely closed.

This closure is expected to have long-term effects on Africa because of the lack of opportunities and capacity for distance training. However, the report shows that the main challenge remains the very low level of student uptake even when schools are open.

The report shows that only 3 out of 10 students who complete primary school learn the basic skills expected at their educational level.

Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and Western Asia will not achieve universal preschool education. It is estimated that about two-thirds of children will be enrolled in early childhood education by 2030.

Furthermore, 8% of primary school-age children are projected to be out of school by 2030. Kenya, for example, will be far from achieving SDG 4 for upper secondary education as it projects that only 64% of young people will finish school by 2030.

Overall, no region has achieved the goal of achieving universal secondary education by 2030 as completion rates are expected to reach 89% at the lower secondary level and 72% at the upper secondary level. on the deadline.

Report of the United Nations Office IPS


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© Inter Press Service (2022) – All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service





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