Sierra Leone Telegraph: 18 February 2025:
Fifteen African countries have committed to end learning poverty by 2035 following concerted engagement during the Year of Education, as leaders call for sustained and co-ordinated action to improve continental productivity, drive economic growth, and address Africa’s learning crisis.
Following the conclusion of the African Union Year of Education, current and former African leaders have called for the African Union to prioritise foundational learning at the heart of the ‘African Decade of Accelerated Action for Education Transformation, Youth Skills Development, and Innovation in Africa,’ which are being approved at the African Union Council meetings in Addis Ababa.
In a new letter to the incoming African Union Chairperson, following the African Union Heads of State Summit on February 15th and 16th, former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Nana Akufo Addo of Ghana, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia (Photo above), Joyce Banda of Malawi and Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania emphasised:
“There is a growing continental consensus on the urgency of addressing our learning crisis. However, as we transition beyond the Year of Education, we must ensure that this momentum is not just maintained but amplified.”
The leaders issued this renewed call to action to ensure that the progress and momentum achieved during the Year of Education are continued.
The African Union Year of Education began at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa in February 2024 and concluded after the African Union Summit that was just concluded in Addis Ababa.
The African Union, African education institutions, advocates, and practitioners have used the Year of Education to highlight the transformational impact that equipping young people can have on the continent’s future – and the delivery of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 vision.
In a call to action at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2024 they said: “If we enhance continental productivity and realise Africa’s demographic dividend by addressing the learning crisis, we can add up to $6.5 trillion of additional value by 2030.”
At the African Union Mid-Year Summit in Accra, Ghana, former President Akufo Addo (Photo above) first called for the African Union to declare a decade of education. He, and the the former Presidents of Nigeria, Liberia, Malawi, and Tanzania convened a global press conference to urge the African Union to act; they said;
“Foundational learning is intrinsically linked to achieving our broader developmental objectives; without these skills, our youth will struggle to contribute meaningfully to our economies, participate in democratic processes, and drive technological innovation. Addressing this crisis is therefore crucial for realizing “The Africa We Want” — an integrated, prosperous, and peaceful Africa, driven by its citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena.”
In his recent State of the Nation Address in South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa demonstrated South Africa’s commitment to addressing the learning crisis, saying: “We will focus on ensuring that every child can read for meaning in the foundation phase to set them up for success in later years. To achieve this, we are implementing mother tongue-based bilingual education to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes, and rolling out lesson plans, reading books, and other interventions that have been proven to work.”
Amplifying this call at the Heads of State Summit, His Excellency Hachim Hichelimina (Photo above), President of Zambia and a continental champion for Foundational Learning said: “As African leaders and stakeholders in education, we must ensure that we enact policies that support foundational learning, put tracking and monitoring systems in place, and make decisions that are informed by data.”
Call to action
Establish a Continental Accountability Mechanism to track foundational learning outcomes under the stewardship of the African Union. Furthermore, develop a framework and also monitor and report progress on learning outcomes regularly.
Integrate foundational learning more prominently into the next phase of the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA), to ensure that the strategy addresses both educational outcomes and historical inequities, thus formalising its importance in our broader education framework. This should involve a focus on evidence-based and cost-effective interventions that have proven impactful across diverse African contexts.
Leverage South Africa’s G20 Presidency in 2025 to embed foundational learning in the global agenda and position quality learning outcomes as an educational imperative and matter of global justice. This focus would emphasise that quality education is not merely a development goal, but a fundamental right, making its restoration an essential component of reparative justice for Africans and people of African descent.
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