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The African Union Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Mohammed Belhocine, says the continent will require about US$90 billion to achieve universal access to education by 2030.
He mentioned that the continent would have to invest more in the development of education in order to get the over 100million children who were currently out of school into school.
Speaking to journalist at the 6th Mid-Year Coordination Meeting of the African Union on Friday, he explained that out of 500 million school-going-children on the continent, 100 million were out of school and this required urgent attention.
Prof. Belhocine said the AU had developed a roadmap for improving the education systems in Africa with 10 objectives and
these include, reforming the teaching profession, promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and improving foundational learning and equitable access to education for all.
“The African Union aims to build resilient education systems, increase access to inclusive and quality learning, and promote education as a catalyst for peace and development,” he said.
Prof. Belhocine further said even though some progress had been made over the years there are still existed number challenges which required sustained efforts to deal with if the targets set out in the roadmap were to be attained.
He explained that the continent currently had a deficit in the number of teaching professionals and it would require the training of close to 15 million teachers in order to reduce the deficit.
The Commissioner also called for strategic collaboration, advocacy, and engagement to transform the educational sectors and create a better future for African children
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
