Education is the bedrock of social and economic development of any nation and more so for Africa. By the middle of the century, Africa will be home to 40 per cent of all children and adolescents worldwide. With a booming young population estimated to touch one billion by mid-century, Africa needs to ensure that this demographic growth does not become a burden, but a benefit. Building its human capital is vital to the growth of the continent.
Unfortunately, the continent suffers from the highest rate of education exclusion. In 2019, the World Bank introduced the concept of ‘Learning Poverty’ – denoting the inability to read and understand a simple text by the age of 10. It had estimated that 87 per cent of children in sub-Saharan Africa fall under this category of ‘learning poor’. Unless dramatic steps are taken to improve the system, the region will fall well short of the target of eliminating learning poverty by 2030. It may even get delayed by more than two decades. Such a delay will be disastrous with a long-term negative impact on African children’s life outcomes, their learning, physical and mental health, nutrition and socioeconomic development.
The Pandemic has aggravated the crisis in education, though, despite the challenge, many African countries made extra effort to mitigate the impact of school closures, addressing learning losses, and normalizing their education systems. After the second wave, according to UNESCO’s global monitoring of school closures, almost all African countries’ schools reopened, and students returned to in-person learning while many other countries were still undecided. But in the face of shifting epidemiological situations, surges of new virus variants and unequal access to vaccines across the continent, schools had to be closed again.
The economic impact of the Pandemic will have a direct consequence on the education sector. The International Monetary Fund (2021) has estimated that, sub-Saharan Africa went through a recession of -1.93 per cent of GDP in 2020, compared with annual growth of more than 3 per cent from 2017–2019.This indicates that many African countries will have to struggle with rising poverty and fiscal austerity and less fiscal space for expenditure in education.
An education recovery plan should be developed on a war footing to avoid further sinking of the continent into ‘Learning Poverty.” These recovery measures must capitalize on the opportunities that emerged during the pandemic – such as an increase in learning tools, school leadership, and collaboration between teachers and parents. Efforts should be taken also to include the local contexts and national development priorities into the curriculum. It is also important that schools are viewed as safe learning spaces providing critical services such as psychological and psychosocial support and school meal programmes.
African governments also have to allocate more funds to support changes in the curriculum to make it tailor made for children and youth growing up in a world dominated by digital technologies. According to the Human Capital Index, sub-Saharan Africa realizes only half of its human capital potential, despite the massive increase in its young population. Investing in digital education, digital literacy and online learning opportunities for Africa’s children and young people is critical. Lack of qualified teachers is another challenge facing the continent. To address the chronic shortage of qualified teachers, the African countries should prioritize upgrading teacher development programmes at all levels, including digital skills. Last but not the least, at a continental level, it is also important to ensure that there is harmonization between different education data producers and sources to lave the way for a unified education system, keeping in view the diminishing relevance of national borders henceforth.
