Could money raised by GPE improve educational equality in Africa?

Global Education Summit, Africa’s education focus

This year’s summit happened as governments continue to face huge challenges due to Covid-19 pandemic-related disruptions.

Progress in educating more children around the world abruptly ended in 2020 when schools closed in most countries. There was no good response plan when closures happened, leading to serious gaps in governments delivery of remote learning.

The Global Partnership for Education pledges to fulfill the right to free, quality, inclusive education for all, and the money raised during the summit is intended to go toward this cause.

But where will this money go across Africa? One example worth mentioning is Rwanda, where the education ministry’s budget is not enough to address existing challenges related to learning losses.

Schools have been closed for at least 10 months, affecting at least 3.5 million students, in an effort to contain the pandemic.

The GPE aims to encourage countries to maintain spending on education above 20% of overall national expenditure or increase spending progressively towards this benchmark in the coming five years.

Africa to rise up in quality education

During President Kenyatta’s address at the summit, he prioritized the advancement of digital learning as means of curbing the inequalities observed in education access during the pandemic – mostly in Africa where there is a lag.

Investing in digital learning will ensure students keep learning through future school closures, whether due to pandemics or to natural and climate disasters.

Currently, children account for almost half of Africa’s population. According to the AU, by 2055, there will be one billion children on the continent.

If properly skilled, this vast human resource could help lift hundreds of millions of Africans out of poverty, a dividend that would benefit both the continent and the world.

The summit advocated for governments to ensure schools are equipped to provide a safe learning environment for both teachers and students and fund catch-up programs to make up for lost learning.

Where schools are closed, adequate resources should be made available for remote learning and to both maintain and expand student support programs such as school feeding.

Girls being the most affected, Africa is at task by the GPE to allocate 20% of its budget to educating girls who aren’t in traditional schooling.

Child marriages have violated female rights to health, education, and opportunity for a long time. Being the leading factor of schoolgirl dropouts, increasing access to education and making sure that school is a safe place will change the lives of many young women.