Stakeholders have stressed the urgent need for sincere commitment and attention from both national and sub-national governments to foster significant development in the education sector this year.

Permanent Observer of the African Union to the United Nations, Ambassador Fatima Mohammed and the Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa, Cristina Duarte, made the call while speaking during a virtual briefing at the official opening of the Africa Dialogue Series in New York,

The ADS 2024 with the theme, “Education through Science, Technology and Innovation toward the Africa We Want” started from May 6 to 24, 2024 virtually through www.un.org/osaa and @UNOSAA1.

Ms Mohammed described the theme as instructive, saying to educate an African for the 21st century will help build a resilient educational system for increased access to inclusive lifelong quality and relevant learning in Africa.

“This, basically, is a clarion call to action, a rallying cry for African states to prioritise education as a cornerstone for progress and development. It is a vision that is very much linked to the SDGs and Agenda 2063 of the AU. This summit was declared urgent due to the severe crisis facing education worldwide and the slow progress toward achieving SDGs centered on education,” Ms Mohammed said.

She said COVID-19 impacted negatively on the quality of education in Africa and threatened decades of progress within the continent.

She reiterated focus will be to devise an effective system of transformational strategies for education in Africa and to tackle challenges posed by limited education financing.

She added, “There will be emphasis in recognising teachers, digital agents of change and highlighting the need for their adequate support and empowerment.”

Also, Duarte said the ADS 2024 is a 30-day celebration aimed at bringing Africa challenges on the stage, as well as Africa’s priorities and vision to deal with the challenges.

According to her, for 30-days focus will be to proffer solutions to education challenges, saying Africa dialogue will take on the theme of the year.

“This is about education and the need for Africa to develop human capital. There is the need for Africa to adopt people centered policies on education. The major challenge is to create decent jobs in Africa: 95 per cent of the young population in Africa have no access to decent jobs, which means to get a job in Africa is not a tool to eradicate poverty. Innovative financing toward transforming education in Africa is key. There are 100 million children out of school in Africa and the old financing model cannot tackle this issue.

“Quality education calls for innovative financing and leveraging ICT; teaching and learning in crisis affected areas amid instability and increase in conflict often pose challenges to education. There is a need to deal with issues about instability and conflict without putting education on hold or closing schools,” Duarte said.

(NAN)